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'Monster-In-Law': Prenup claws

Fifteen years ago, two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda gave up filmmaking for married bliss with media giant Ted Turner, and we know how well that worked out.

So now she is back before the cameras in the catfight comedy Monster-in-Law, playing an in-law from hell who does her darndest to break up her only son's marriage before it ever begins. Fonda is fun to watch in a role so broad and cartoonish that her hiatus from acting may still technically be in effect.

New Line Cinema 'Monster-In-Law' B- The verdict: Catfighting Fonda and Lopez deliver the comic goods, however unsubtlely. 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]

For those too young to know or care who Fonda is, she is paired with Jennifer Lopez, who famously has altar issues of her own.

J. Lo plays too-good-to-be-true Charlotte "Charlie" Cantilini, a gorgeous office temp-dog walker-cater waiter-fashion designer wannabe who meets cute with Dr. Kevin Fields (Michael Vartan, TV's Alias), a surgeon with continual three-day stubble, and they fall quickly and efficiently in love.

The prospect of taking a back seat to anyone else for her son's affections turns Viola Fields (Fonda), already insecure over her forced retirement as a television-personality interviewer, apoplectic. The key joke in rookie Anya Kochoff's screenplay is that demure Charlie is driven so batty by Viola's meddling that she is soon reduced to her prospective mother-in-law's level of guerilla warfare.

Reacting from the sidelines, and getting some of the movie's best lines and biggest laughs, is Wanda Sykes as Viola's long-suffering personal assistant, Ruby. She knows her boss' eccentricities and how to manage them, yet when Viola has a borderline mental breakdown and needs someone to care for her, the movie somehow contrives it to be Charlie instead of Ruby. Add a convenient out-of-town conference for Dr. Kevin and the stage is set for a test of wills between Fonda and Lopez. Or at least their characters.

At 67, Fonda looks terrific, without attempting to hide her aging, neck wrinkles or crow's feet. She seems to know not to try and make any real sense of Viola, so she dives in and accepts her oversized neuroses with good humor. Lopez remains within her performance comfort zone — Charlie may remind you of her role in Maid in Manhattan — playing a woman seemingly in over her head who proves more than up to the challenges before her.

Vartan has little to work with as the ideal mate, but he is clearly a keeper from the moment he describes Charlie's eye color in a way that should get every woman in the audience swooning. The most interesting thing about him playing Fonda's son is how much he resembles a young version of her brother, Peter.

Striding in late in the movie and stealing her scene with veteran skill is Elaine Stritch as Viola's mother-in-law. Watching her browbeat Fonda, Charlie gets a glimpse of herself and Viola in another 30 years. Sequel, anyone?

Director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) knows how to showcase his stars and that is really all Monster-in-Law requires. Lopez is presented the way her fans like seeing her, plus some breakout comedy in a face-slapping contest with Fonda.

Fonda is a hoot and — like Barbra Streisand, who returned to the big screen with Meet the Fockers — she apparently checked that there is no provision for having her Oscars revoked.