I have to agree that in real life, Jennifer's character would have been arrested for breaking into her husbands house, even though they are technically still married and California IS a community property state; but that's beside the point.
Yes, the movie is incredible in that Slim and her daughter are on the run from their very wealthy and abusive husband and father, respectively; and that she somehow manages to get trained to fight in order to break into her husband's new house and kill him...premeditatively.
I'm just gonna come right out and say that in a perfect world, violence inficted by any gender against their opposite is wrong. That, as the cliche goes, is the bottom line.
I, for one, writing as a former victim of domestic abuse -- I was emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by my ex-fiancee during the time she and I were together. I can tell you for a fact that the movie is unreal because Slim would have been arrrested for retaliating against her husband to the point of killing him. Moreso, she would have permanently lost her daughter to the system because of her actions.
I know this because I got fed up with my fiancee's abuse too many times. Every time she would hit me, I would fight back by pushing her away or restraining her. I was the type to never fight with anyone unless they throw the first punch -- it didn't matter if they were man or woman.
Anyway, one day several years ago, my fiancee and I argued heatedly on the way back home. When we stopped directly in front of the apartment, I got out first, she got out behind me. She then started choking me down to the ground, and I was afraid that she was going to kill me out in the open.
I pried her hands off of me and pushed her away. She stumbled about twelve feet over a patch of grass toward the pavement. When she reached the pavement, she fell on her face without so much as putting her hands out in front of her.
I got arrested that day for my part in that mutually combative altercation. I don't care what the cops say, I know what happened because I was part and parcel of the whole thing.
I deserved the punishment I got from the court, and I accepted every bit of help they offered me in understanding where I went wrong and how to avoid being in a position like that ever again.
What I am extremely bitter about is that nobody questioned whether my ex provoked the whole incident as well. In most other states, we both would have lost custody of our children, but those of you from California know differently. She got away with her part because she had marks and I didn't. Ultimately, the truth will come out in the end.
At any rate, I just wish that either the independent or mainstream film media would one day come out with a film to truly show just how wrong mutually combative domestic violence is, and that they would also show that women can be just as guilty as the men beyond what was shown in ENOUGH.
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anurag-6
18 years ago
As someone who has worked with both male and female victims of domestic violence, I sympathsize with you circumstances. I wish the media industry would focus on 3 things:
1. Stop making domestic violence a black vs. white issue or good vs. evil. As your example provided there is a gray area on who is the victim.
2. Men are victims too, not every man is Farah's husband in the burning bed. By protraying them as always evil in movies like Enough, Burning Bed and numerous ones on Oxygen type channels it makes it extremely difficult for male victims to come forward.
In my opinion leading to the statistics that overwhelming show women as victims. An analogy to this is stating that racism didn't exist at the turn of the century since blacks didn't report it and no one was convicted of lynchings in some southern stats. Men always protrayed as evil = men never being a victim = men not reporting violence to police.
3. Making movies that show the abundance of resources avaliable to victims of domestic violence and the effectiveness of those agencies. In the county i live in our domestic violence agencies have done a wonderful job in many cases of protecting victims and creating positive choices, environments and relationships for the future. Movies typically create the perception that law enforecement doesn't care and agencies can't really help. This is not true. Law enforecement and various agencies can help, but further education and positive images will help.
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iamnaomie
18 years ago
its obvious men hate this movie. and the thing with mitch having "too much power" to be believable is *beep* i have been stalked and the police did not believe me for a second. so you take things into your own hands. this movie is good and it does not promote women killing husbands who smack them once or twise.
www.myspace.com/naomie_iv2
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