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MONSTER-IN-LAW Send This Review to a Friend
Jane Fonda is back and having a good time chewing scenery, in “Monster-in-Law,” a far-fetched but occasionally funny comedy about a mother who is determined to break up her
son’s relationship and thwart his planned marriage. The result is predictable, but with Jennifer Lopez nicely playing the intended, the film, directed by Robert Luketic, has its moments.
Fonda as Viola is especially funny in the beginning after being told she is being replaced as the hot-shot television interviewer (think Barbara Walters), who has had just about every famous person on her show. Now a young nobody will take over when her contract expires. Still on the air, when she interviews a ditsy young subject who thinks Roe v. Wade has to do with boxers, she physically attacks her guest in an on-camera breakdown. Off Viola goes to a clinic for psychological care and recovery.
The last thing this possessive mom can handle on her release is the news that her son Kevin (Michael Vartan) is bringing his new woman Charlie (Lopez) home to meet her.
Viola concocts a plot to make Charlie so miserable that she’ll walk away. After a while, the plot begins to run down, but picks up again when Charlie counterattacks with a vengeance that produces some amusing confrontations. Of course, we know there will have to be peace in the end.
The film is pepped up by Wanda Sykes as Ruby, Viola’s feisty assistant. Anya Kochoff’s screenplay gives Ruby most of the snappy lines and Sykes, with her comic timing and dagger-like looks, earns laughs nearly every time she speaks. Vartan is amiable, and Lopez delivers a good performance too. But seeing Fonda back is the main event. She looks great and reminds us what an accomplished actress she can be, even in this formula comedy. A New Line Cinema release.
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