Enough

Jennifer Lopez, J-Lo - whatever, it’s all the same to me, and should be for you too! Enough is Lopez’s most recent film to be released on DVD, and was directed by Michael Apted (Enigma, The World is Not Enough). Her list of talents is quite extensive, involving a musical career with hits such as I’m Real as well as acting in films such as Maid in Manhattan, The Wedding Planner, Out of Sight, U-Turn and Angel Eyes as well as on-and-off marriages/engagements/Ben Afflecks. Supported by an equally talented cast including Billy Campbell (The Rocketeer), Juliette Lewis (Kalifornia, From Dusk 'Til Dawn, The Basketball Diaries) and Noah Wyle (White Oleander, Donnie Darko), all actors who have played major parts, this film appears to have potential to absolutely rock the screen. But something went wrong somewhere along the track.

"Self-defense is not murder."

So what exactly went wrong? Well what is with her haircut? What is with her freaky wig? And if it isn’t a wig... you get the rest of it, I'll put my muzzle back on. But seriously, the film really is lacking something to make it stand out from the crowd. Oh, that’s right, originality. How could I forget that? Hands up who saw Sleeping With the Enemy or The Net. OK, lots of hands there. Both of these films focus in on women in trouble. More specifically, Sleeping With the Enemy was a story about a rich, pedantic husband who beat his wife, who eventually fled only to have him come after her. This 1991 film had some quite intense moments, with a great foreboding feel to the film. Not only was it the stalker-type, but also the psychological thriller that is able to get inside your head and work you just as much as the actors on screen are being worked. And what is the story to Enough? Well the same thing pretty much, but add a cheating husband, a small child and a group of willing friends and there you go!

The pacing of this film is quite slow, and it seems to drag its way through situation after situation, with no real point until the finale. One interesting stylistic point, as discussed in the director and writer commentary, is about the use of chapter subtitles throughout the film. Titles such as “hey�, which opens the film, and “A new leaf� etcetera, etcetera, are displayed to give a clearer definition between sequences. This works well for the first hour, but then the idea is thrown away. Again reasons for this are discussed in the commentary, but it would have been more effective to keep them in throughout. These captions are used to convey a feel of time passing, and divide up this block of events with that block of events to give a clearer image to the audience. This is something that is quite risky for the genre, and especially mainstream film, but something that effectively works.

All credit is to be given to Jennifer Lopez, as she simply shines on screen as Slim. After discussions with colleagues and friends, we couldn’t come up with a better actress to play her role. Her motherly face, beautiful looks and physical appearance all tie together to form Slim, and no other young, beautiful and physical mainstream actress comes to mind. Plus the fact that many guys will ogle over her goodies (which for your information, you don’t see) when she wears a skimpy black outfit, which then sells because they will take their girlfriends to see it, and hey that makes money! But with the commercial factor thrown out the window, Lopez really does blossom as Slim, and is simply a delight to watch – if that’s possible for this genre.

Mitch - "Is that my little croissant?" Slim - "No, it’s your loaf of bread."

Slim (Lopez) works in a diner with her best friend Ginny (Lewis) and just can’t find a decent guy, but then a gorgeous guy (Wyle) walks in with a rose and flirts with her. However, the guy behind him, Mitch (Campbell), chirps in and lets Slim know of a bet going with Wyle and his mate for $200 to get Slim into bed. However little do we know that his mate actually is Mitch. So after Ginny’s hand movements, Slim follows Mitch out and, you know, as you do, they fall in love, and before you know it – well after the next caption anyway – they are married, and Slim is pregnant with a beautiful baby girl, Gracie (Tessa Allen). One night after Mitch discards Slim’s sexual advance, his pager dances across the slate benchtop in their Tudor style house while he is in the shower, displaying the number -33-. She calls it, and Darcelle answers seductively. When he comes from the shower, she lets him know that she knows about Darcelle, and then things start to go wild. The possessive nature of men (well in this genre anyway) can quickly be seen in Mitch’s character, and he will not let her leave him, because he makes the money and therefore he makes the rules. Despite his warnings, she runs - but you always know the old adage, you can run, but you can’t hide...

Enough is presented in the 16:9-enhanced CinemaScope aspect of 2.35:1, the original aspect of the film. This transfer from Columbia Tristar is so close to faultless that it’s not even funny. Colours are abundantly saturated, with a natural realism and precise beauty. Blacks are solid and black, with no low level noise at all. Shadow detail is remarkable, with deep and solid definition and clear outlines, something quite important, especially for the climax of the film. Posterisation effects are left to an absolute minimum, and are not distracting when they do flash past, and compression-related artefacts are not an issue at all, except for a shimmering wall of aliasing.

Simply put, the image is just amazing, with only one minor case of aliasing and a few cases of moire (one being quite large) stopping this transfer from being reference quality. Film artefacts are limited to the odd white speck, and by ‘odd’ I mean about 40 minutes between each one – so really, really sparse. Subtitles have been included for a host of languages, including tracks for both the audio commentaries, and are comprehensive, clear and nearly spot-on word-for-word perfect.

Three 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks have been included, with language options of English, Hungarian and Russian. Now, this American film is best listened to in English, and it proves to be a fairly decent 5.1 track. The word there is ‘decent’, not ‘great’. For most of the film the soundstage is built towards the front, with very little to no activity in the rear channels. These channels are mainly used to provide ambience and the odd effect, but nothing terribly directional or aggressive. The subwoofer woofs during the appropriate places and supports the remaining five channels in the soundtrack.

David Arnold’s score provides environmental moods to the film, but isn’t anything terribly memorable. The soundtrack, like the film, provides strong female leads with tracks by Sheryl Crow (All I Wanna Do), Jewel (This Way), Aimee Mann (Enough) and J-Lo herself(Alive).

While other releases of this disc around the world have been given a brush over in the extras department, the Region 4 disc emerges as the winner, earning its "Collector’s Edition" title. The menus are animated with audio, and are 16:9 enhanced. However, the 'Special Features' page shows some poor design, with the arrow going to the next page appearing more like a blemish than a button. This reviewer thought there were only a short list of crappy extras, but then this mysterious button was uncovered and ah-huh, the extras appear! (duh, blonde moment...)

So on with the show...

Audio Commentary 1: Director Michael Apted and Writer Nicholas Kazan
This feature-length commentary, with optional subtitles, is a superb look into the production of the film, with a lot of trivial information regarding actors, sets and shooting specifics. Some of the controversy and criticism regarding the film is briefly discussed, giving the director’s and writer’s points of view.

Audio Commentary 2: Producers Rob Cowan and Irwin Winkler
This commentary is more of a producers-want-their-say kind of thing, and repeats some of the information discussed in the first commentary. These two guys offer some good, yet terribly biased, opinions regarding the film, and in all honesty these two commentaries mushed together would be much better, as it would be chock-a-block full of information. This commentary also features optional subtitles, great if you actually want to watch the film but read the commentary.

Deleted Scenes
Three deleted scenes have been included (personally, there should have been more here and less in the film), and are presented in the non-enhanced aspect of roughly 2.35:1, even though they are slightly stretched upwards. The video quality isn’t terribly good, but then again it isn’t bad either. The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is more than sufficient, and the optional commentary is great to listen to. Subtitles can also be turned on if you so desire. The three deleted scenes are Amusement Park (0:49), Diner/INS Raid (1:16) and Strip Joint Break-in (1:03).

Max on the Set: Enough
This 12:10 featurette covers the basic making of the film, in the usual promotional style. The 1.33:1 video is clean, with a fairly low bitrate, yet no compression artefacts at all. The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is appropriate. It features interviews with Jennifer Lopez, Nicholas Kazan, Billy Campbell, Michael Apted, Simon Crane (stunt coordinator), Irwin Winkler and Rob Cowan. English subtitles have been included.

Featurettes
Three featurettes have been included, providing more of an insight into specific aspects of the film. These are all presented in the aspect of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. A Clear Message (9:02) discusses the story and the Hollywood-ism of reading far too deeply into the screenplay. Well that's one interpretation of it. Interviews are with Irwin Winkler, Michael Apted, Rob Cowan, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell, Juliette Lewis, Noah Wyle and do repeat some of the clips from the Max on the Set featurette. Enough is Enough (11:04) features interviews with Judith L. Herman M.D. (Clinical Professor of Psychiatry), Lisa Polacci (Community Education Outreach Manager), Richard G. Wright (Assistant Project Director), Robert B. Adrine (Judge), Kathy Black (Executive Director at La Casa de las Madres), Dr. Susan Forward (Therapist/Author) and Sonia E. Melara (co-Founder and Executive Director at La Casa de las Madres). This featurette focuses on troubled relationships and links between reality and the film, and specifically what to do in Slim’s situation. Krav Maga: Contact Combat (7:59) focuses on contact combat, and self defence in an attack situation using Krav Maga. Interviews include Darren R. Levine (U.S. Chief Instructor of Krav Maga), Simon Crane, Wade Allen (Director of Krav Maga Worldwide), Sam Sade (Lead Instructor), John Whitman (Senior Lead Instructor), Michael Margolin (Lead Instructor) and Jennifer Lopez.

Music Video: Alive by J-Lo
This 4:26 video clip is presented in the aspect of 1.85:1, and is not anamorphically enhanced. The song is more of a ballad as opposed to her usual style. The video quality is remarkable, especially considering it is only an extra feature, and the audio is clear throughout. The video clip itself is actually quite reasonable for such a creation, apart from the way singers are always portrayed when recording video clips. Just look at the comment about singing with eyes closed in About A Boy... No more needs to be said.

Filmographies
Selected filmographies have been included for Michael Apted, Nicholas Kazan, Jennifer Lopez, Juliette Lewis, Billy Campbell and Noah Wyle. These are just selected listings, with nothing about the actors themselves.

Trailers
As with most Columbia releases recently, a heap of trailers have been included for the feature film and others. Five trailers are here, all with widescreen aspects, 16:9 enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Enough runs for 1:46 and does a fairly good job of telling the story, but it does give away the predictable ending. The other trailers are Men In Black II (1:59), Spiderman (1:11), Trapped (1:46) and Maid in Manhattan (2:21).

Enough is your typical thriller/suspense film which holds potential that isn’t quite realised. The fact that the story has been done before doesn’t really help, but still. The video is remarkable, as you expect from Columbia, and the audio is getting there, whilst the swarm of features offers very biased yet informative insights into the making of the film. It's definitely worth a hire, and if you’re a fan grab it for your collection, because its one that will deserve repeated viewings.