MONSTER-IN-LAW
US, 2005, 105 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan, Wanda Sykes, Adam Scott.
Directed by Robert Luketic.
It comes as a profound shock (at least to some of us) that Jane Fonda has not been on the big screen since the moving Stanley and Iris in the early 1990s. This is a film that accentuates the age divide. Will you see it for Jennifer Lopez, JLo, or for Jane Fonda? This review reveals which side of this barrier, this reviewer opts for.
Jane Fonda. She obviously enjoys her return to the screen as a possessive mother who assumes her son will not be happy with the woman he is obviously (not to her) in love with. She plays a TV talk show host who is unceremoniously fired and loses it on camera while interviewing a Brittney Spears clone. Just when she is ready to come home from an institution after a breakdown, her son brings his girlfriend and, in front of her, proposes. What else to do but wreck the engagement: over-organise the ceremony, try to make her feel out of place, feign breakdown, move in with her prospective daughter-in-law and torment her, even aggravate her nut allergy, until she wants out? Jane Fonda even has the chance for slapstick and a punch-up with Jennifer.
Fonda’s assistant is played by Wanda Sykes, a genial stand-up comic who makes wry observations all the way through. Jennifer Lopez is pleasant, rather subdued for much of the film but, once the tables turn…
Michael Vartan, tall, stubbled and handsome, plays it nice. In fact, it is all pretty nice – a bit like icing with a scattering of peppercorns in it. When Elaine Stritch turns up for the wedding as Fonda’s mother-in-law, she brings some welcome acerbity to the dialogue.
This is a light, Saturday night comedy-romance, a film for a nice date.
1. An entertaining light comedy? Romance? Slapstick, spoof? Verbal comedy, visual comedy?
2. The Californian settings, a Californian story? Affluence – even those who are not rich? The comfortable life, houses, mansions, the beach, the television studios, restaurants? Credible as reality, for an American fairy tale? The musical score – and the songs, especially during the credits at the end?
3. The title and mother-in-law jokes?
4. Charlie, Jennifer Lopez’s screen presence? Her hopes, the horoscope, at work at the doctor’s reception, her friendship with Morgan and Remy, talking, sharing the apartment with Remy? Working with the catering? Taking the dogs for walks, seeing Kevin on the beach, her reaction, the encounter with him at the shop, her shyness, at the party and listening in, Fiona telling her that Kevin was gay? Listening to his phone call and her not ringing back, encountering him on the beach, their going out together, her falling in love? The possibilities for her future?
5. The introduction of Viola Fields? Audience expectations of Jane Fonda, in her mid-60s? Ruby as her assistant? Her being the tall domineering type? Her being fired, her saving face, her interviewing the young singer with her fatuous answers, her physical attack? The breakdown? At the rehabilitation centre, leaving? The set-up for the intrusion into the lives of Charlie and Kevin?
6. Ruby, her assistant, at work, saving the day, picking her up from the centre, helping her, conniving with her – or not? The stand-up comedienne and her wry comments? Her admiration for Charlie?
7. The meeting between Charlie and Viola? The meal, the talk, Viola behaving herself? Kevin and his listening to the two women talk and get to know each other? The sudden proposal? Viola imagining pushing Charlie’s face in the cake? - and the later irony with Viola’s face in the tripe? Viola’s character, trying to cope, drinks, presuming that her son would not be happy with Charlie, taking on a project? The party and her turban, the dress for Charlie, wanting her to feel out of place? The meals, her intense planning and Charlie’s reaction, her fainting fit? The false doctor, the treatment? Moving in with Charlie, weeping during the night, ordering her to get water with ice, talking while the TV was on? Her going shopping with Ruby? The tables turning, Charlie wanting her to wear a dress as matron of honour? Giving her the true pills, offering her the tripe, Viola passing out? The meal – and Viola putting the nuts in the gravy? A portrait of a monster mother-in-law?
8. Charlie, coping, her love for Kevin, the planning of the wedding, going to the party, tearing the dress, wanting to go home? The interactions with Fiona, Fiona telling her that Kevin was gay, seeing him kissing Fiona before the party? At home, talking with Morgan and Remy – yet telling them not to be charmed by Viola – which they were? The dogs attacking Viola, getting the true pills, the tripe, inviting the false doctor to the dinner? As well as Fiona coming? Her allergic reaction to the nuts?
9. Kevin, pleasant, jogging on the beach, meeting Charlie in the shop, his party, the discussion, the phone call, going out, sharing, proposing, listening to the two women? His doctor friend and his advice? His love for his mother, putting up with her? His consoling Charlie after the allergy effect?
10. Elaine Stritch and her arrival as the grandmother, monster-in-law? Her barbs, the truth about Viola, taunting Viola? The effect on Viola?
11. Charlie, feeling she should call the wedding off, Kevin and his response?
12. Viola stopping her, the discussion, contract between the two women that they would work out a way of dealing with each other, with the grandchildren?
13. The wedding and the happy ending? A piece of entertainment fluff?
