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ENOUGH by Tom McCurrie
I'd like to talk about underdogs. And I don't mean the kind that kicks butt on Simon Bar Sinister. I mean the kind that can bring a story like ENOUGH back from the dead.
Though credited to Nicholas Kazan, ENOUGH at first glance appears to have been slapped together by a room full of inebriated chimps. In fact, on second and third glance it appears that way, too. That's because the story is so sloppily constructed and nonsensically plotted it had to have been thrown together by an order of lower primates.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
ENOUGH stars Jennifer Lopez as a lowly waitress who marries the Hubby from Hell. Not a bad premise, except for a few problems:
It's been done. SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY has the same plot, minus the kid. Yawn.
The villain has no dimension. Why is Billy Campbell psycho? Who knows? Maybe it's because ABC canceled ONCE AND AGAIN.
A major plot point is totally contrived. Fred Ward not only turns out to be J.Lo's long-lost father, he's the Second-Coming of Bill Gates, paying all her bills while she's on the run from her nutso husband. How convenient!
Then we have the loose ends. Noah Wyle's character disappears halfway through the story, never to be seen again. What happened to him? Was he paged back to the ER? (Don't worry, Noah -- George didn't knock 'em dead right out of the gate, either. Remember THE PEACEMAKER?)
OK, you say, so the script has major problems. Then how can it still work? Underdogs, baby. Audiences love underdogs.
Why? Because underdogs remind audiences of their own (often losing) battles with the rich and powerful. And if you can't overcome the rich and powerful in real life, overcoming them on the big screen is the next best thing.
So as J.Lo is abused again and again by her rich and powerful spouse, we're with her all the way. This is a gut, emotional reaction -- we root for her even as the rest of the story falls apart. After all, movies affect us through feeling, not logic; they grab us through the heart, not the head. So when J.Lo finally lays the smack down on her no-good hubby, we cheer like crazy.
Remember, Underdog may be a cool cartoon, but having one in your script is even cooler.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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