accessAtlanta

'Monster-In-Law': Pleasant enough, just not funny enough

Although I enjoyed seeing Jane Fonda back on the big screen in "Monster-in-Law," as far as monsters go, she's about as scary as Harry Monster, Cookie Monster, or Grover on "Sesame Street."

I know, Fonda is supposed to be playing the nightmare version of the most feared family member of all, but she, like the movie as a whole, takes the easy way out, falling back (sometimes literally) on predictable slapstick humor.

New Line Cinema 'Monster-In-Law' C+ Director: Robert Luketic Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan, Wanda Sykes, Monet Mazur Run time: 95 minutes Release date: May 13, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for sex references and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Fonda plays Viola, an aging TV talk show host who is more high strung than a clothesline on Mount Everest. After throttling a teenage twit singer who says her favorite "really old movies" are "Grease," "Grease 2" and "The Little Mermaid," she recuperates in a rest home.

This is not a good prelude to the news that her only son Kevin (Michael Vartan) wants to marry Charlie (Jennifer Lopez), a beautiful but somewhat directionless woman who runs from one temp job to another. Terrified at the prospect of losing her son, Viola goes to outlandish lengths to sabotage the marriage.

One of this movie's major problems is that until almost the last scene, it doesn't give Viola a valid reason to be aghast at the pending nuptials, except that she's a crazed control freak. "Monster-in-Law" plays so many scenes with the volume turned up to 11 that it's impossible to relate to the characters.

Fonda, in her first movie role since 1990, still has considerable charisma, and when Viola calms down, Fonda gives her a kind of regal charm. Too much of the time, though, she's not playing a character, she's playing a cartoon. Her "monster" is intimidating not so much because she's conniving, but because she screeches at the top of her lungs and throws things a lot. As glad as I was to see Fonda again, I wish she had chosen Cameron Crowe's upcoming "Elizabethtown" as her comeback vehicle instead.

It doesn't help that most of the other characters are as stale as week-old wedding cake. Lopez hasn't given an interesting performance since "Out of Sight" and recycles her usual bubbly, put-upon mode here. As her love interest, Vartan comes across with all the depth of a pinup stud, only with less guts. The movie might have been a little more interesting, and more believable, if Kevin had stood up to his mother.

That leaves the job of standing up to Viola to her assistant, Ruby, played by Wanda Sykes, who gets most of the biggest laughs. Ruby is the only person with the courage to call Viola on her craziness. When Viola tries to find out how many relationships Charlie has had, Ruby replies, "She's had fewer lovers than you had at the closing day of Woodstock."

"Monster-in-Law" gets funnier when it focuses less on Viola's antics and more on a battle of wills between her and Charlie, but even then, the movie shortchanges its potential. Anya Kochoff's formulaic screenplay relies on obvious jokes like afflicting Charlie with an allergic reaction that puffs up her lips so badly, they would make Mick Jagger blink.

Chick flick fans may find "Monster-in-Law" much more hilarious than I did. The preview audience certainly laughed loud and long, but I kept wanting the movie to try harder. Thanks to Sykes, and to Fonda in her quieter moments, the movie is pleasant enough — it's just not funny enough.