Hero Realm
May 2005
Hero Realm scares off the... MONSTER-IN-LAW
By JE SMITH
SPOILERS!
Big-time movie stars like Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda aren’t supposed to lose their films to a fairly minor supporting character, but that’s exactly what happens in MONSTER-IN-LAW, a fairly drab rom-com given more life than it deserves by comedienne Wanda Sykes, who co-stars as Fonda’s tart-tongued assistant.
The plot is as soggy as they come: pretty dog walker/receptionist/yoga instructor Jennifer Lopez meets, falls in love with, and gets engaged to a hunky doctor (Michael Vatan, whose only job is to be Handsome and Wonderful), little knowing that his mom, a recently-axed MURPHY BROWN-esque telejournalist, has a serious superiority complex, and will do anything to squash the impending nuptials.
Despite the hackneyed storyline (we’ve seen this mom-vs.-fiancée scenario a million times, with John Candy’s ONLY THE LONELY being one of the most direct antecedents), the film starts off okay, mainly because Sykes sidles in and starts doing her shtick. However, the midsection (from which Wanda is largely absent) really starts to bog down, as Lopez and Fonda, for reasons far too contrived to outline here, move in together for a week while Vatan is out of town. They hate each other, they’re mean to each other, all the while pretending to be nice, blah blah blah blah blah. Been there, done that, bought the friggin’ t-shirt. Amazingly, the movie totally rallies during its third act, and the last half-hour or so is consistently funny, if it does go all predictably goopy at the very end.
MONSTER-IN-LAW might’ve crossed the line into actually being “good” (as opposed to passably watchable) if first-time screenwriter Anya Kochoff and director Robert Luketic (who directed the similarly not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been LEGALLY BLONDE) had gotten really nasty with this material – as it stands, a brief slapfest is as close as we get to any kind of “edge,” as everybody seems desperate to keep things in that “but we all have to hug at the end” territory. A pity, really, as this could’ve been sorta memorable with a sharper sting. But hey – this is a Jennifer Lopez movie, so what was I thinking?
No doubt about it, J-Lo has an easy grace in front of the camera, and can deliver a snappy line with aplomb, but basically she’s from the Bogart/John Wayne school – she always seems like exactly the same person in every movie she’s in, just with a different job (and in this one, she has several jobs). Heck, she hardly ever even varies her hair length. Still, Hollywood doesn’t really care about acting, and her sameness is probably considered a giant asset – she’s a known quantity, which rarely varies, even in something as out-there as THE CELL. She’s as appealing as ever here, playing Jennifer Lopez as only she can.
Meanwhile, Ms. Fonda, in her first film in 15 years (it must be true, imdb says so) has a few nice moments, and there’s a funny bit at the beginning where the incidental music treats her like a mustache-twirling B-movie villain, but there really isn’t much meat on these bones, and the by-the-numbers script hobbles her considerably.
It really doesn’t matter, though, because this movie belongs to Wanda Sykes. The wisecracking sidekick role is just as trite as the rest of the script, but Sykes brings so much verve to the role, and has such impeccable timing, that she dominates her higher-paid co-stars at every turn. Director Luketic seems to know how important Sykes is, as he cuts to her reactions in virtually every situation. It’s not enough to say she steals the movie – she single-handedly saves it from being just another limp piece of Tinseltown drek. More than likely, if you’re laughing, it’ll be because of her.
Consequently, MONSTER-IN-LAW ain’t half-bad, and is far more entertaining than it has any right to be. You won’t see it twice, you won’t buy the dvd, and a year from now you may even doubt its existence, but there are worse things playing the local cineplex.
RATING: 2.5/5
© 360ep, entertainment properties, llc. 2005
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