ENOUGH —** — Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell, Juliette Lewis, Dan Futterman, Tessa Allen, Fred Ward, Noah Wyle; rated PG-13 (violence, sex, profanity).
If you saw "Sleeping With the Enemy," you may have seen enough of "Enough."
The 1991 movie starred Julia Roberts as the wife of a wealthy, abusive husband who flees her palatial Los Angeles home, moves to a small town in the Midwest, and changes her name and her looks. And yet, he hunts her down and tries to kill her.
"Enough" stars Jennifer Lopez as the wife of a wealthy, abusive husband who flees her palatial Los Angeles home, moves to a small town in the Midwest, and changes her name and her looks. He hunts her down and tries to kill her, too.
The main variable here is that Lopez's character, Slim, is a mother, and she grabs the couple's young daughter, Gracie (Tessa Allen), on her way out the door.
For a thriller, the movie begins more like a romantic comedy, with Slim and Mitch (Billy Campbell) meeting cute at the diner where she's a waitress, and title cards like "How they met" and "Conquering hero" connecting their early stages.
In no time, they've fallen in love, gotten married, moved into a beautiful house together and had a baby. Mitch, a contractor, seems like the ideal husband, if a bit distant at times.
Then Slim discovers Mitch is having an affair, and when she confronts him, his personality changes completely. He becomes so cold-hearted and cruel so abruptly, it's difficult to accept — almost comic.
Slim cooks up a scheme to escape with the help of Ginny (Juliette Lewis), a waitress at the diner; Phil (Christopher Maher), who's a father figure in the absence of her real dad; and ex-boyfriend Joe (Dan Futterman), who provides refuge at his home in Seattle.
Michael Apted, who directed the most recent Bond movie, "The World Is Not Enough," and another female empowerment movie, "Coal Miner's Daughter," knows how to keep the pace moving during the action sequences. But the midsection of the film — the cat-and-mouse chase, with its requisite cheap scares — gets a bit repetitive.
The plot problems pop up as Slim and Gracie move from city to city. For a contractor, Mitch has the computer skills of a sophisticated hacker; he immediately freezes Slim's access to her cash and credit, and he tracks her moves effortlessly, with a squad of thugs in every city available to pounce on her and the little girl.
Mitch even has a police officer buddy at his disposal (Noah Wyle, also playing against type) who tries to ram Slim's car from behind, even though Gracie is sitting in the back seat. Um, isn't he supposed to bring the girl back . . . alive?
"Enough" is rated PG-13 for intense scenes of domestic violence, some sensuality and language. Running time: 114 minutes.