MONSTER-IN-LAW Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
New Line Cinema
Grade: C+
Directed by: Robert Luketic
Written by: Anya Kochoff
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan, Wanda Sykes
Screened at: MGM, NYC, 4/13/05 Since your wedding day is said to be the most important in your life, marriage can be the subject of serious drama or rollicking comedy, depending on the whims of writers and directors, and also the strategies and marketing decisions of the distributing studios. The classic film, Vicente Minelle’s “Father of the Bride,” employs a mostly serious touch, poignantly showing us the efforts that Stanley Banks must make to reconcile himself to his daughter’s nuptials. In “Meet the Parents,” one of the flat-out funniest pics on the theme in the past decade, retired CIA agent Jack Byrnes is hard-put to accept her daughter’s engagement to a male nurse, Gaylord Focker, giving the young man various tests to unnerve him. For his part, the prospective groom causes enough havoc to wreck his chances with his fiancé, a second-grade teacher. Director Jay Roach milks the endlessly comic variations of the story. More recently, Kevin Sullivan’s “Guess Who” looks beyond the normal fears of parents to explore the need of a black father, Percy Jones, to accept Simon Green as his white son-in-law. And in Joel Zwick’s “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” Gus Portokalos has a difficult time accepting a non-Greek groom, Ian Miller, for his daughter, Toula. These movies all worked because of the combination of good writing, clever direction, and stellar performers who could win the sympathies and laughter of their audience. Robert Luketic’s “Monster-in-Law,” by contrast, does not work as well as the aforementioned. While the movie is marketed to bring in a diverse audience–the older folks to see what Jane Fonda can do in her first pic in fifteen years, the youthful members of Jennifer Lopez’s fans eager to watch J.Lo redeem herself from the mess that was “Gigli.” Though one of the side characters, Gertrude (Elaine Stritch), declares the prospective bride “an exotic Latina,” ethnicity (as in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), race (as in “Guess Who”), and social class (as in “Meet the Parents”) is not at issue, notwithstanding the fact that the social classes of Charlie (Jennifer Lopez) and her doctor fiancé, Kevin (Michael Vartan), are so disparate that audience credibility is challenged. In other words, the mother-in-law-to-be, Viola Fields (Jane Fonda), should really not have to lift a finger to subvert her son’s plan to marry someone beneath his social station. Nonetheless the entire comic premise of “Monster-in-Law” is based on Viola’s over-the-top plan to get her son, her only real family, to break up with his intended, thus keeping the handsome doctor exclusively under her wing. “Monster-in-Law” turns into a one-joke affair that has its moments (few films do not) but since Jane Fonda, wonderful performer though she may be, does not have the gravitas of Robert De Niro in “Meet the Parents” and Jennifer Lopez, who has been in decidedly a mixed-bag of films, does not come close in comic talent to Ben Stiller, making her anxious gestures more embarrassing than hilarious. Director Robert Luketic sets the tone of the story early on, as we watch Charlotte, or Charlie as most everyone calls her, perform a variety of duties which are not usually thought to be complex or ambitious endeavors. She temps as a receptionist in a doctor’s office, as a dog-walker she takes charge of a motley team of pets, and does painting when she’s not busy at her job or dreaming about her chances to meet Mr. Right. When she and Kevin lock eyes on a left-coach beach, Charlie is wary at first but agrees to a series of dates that will lead to a proposal of marriage--which will take place in the presence of Kevin’s monster, er, mom. For her part, Viola has a drop-dead house in a plush neighborhood, and in her job as a TV interviewer of society’s movers and shakers (with Barbara Walters as the model for the role), has been let go by her network which seeks “a more youthful demographic.” In an underwritten role, Michael Vartan’s Kevin has little personality, a Mr. Cellophane despite his profession as a doctor, which may be deliberate as Luketic wants our attention squarely on the relationship between Charlie and Viola. As for the moments...One of the high spots occurs just after Viola is fired. Interviewing a 17-year-old on the air, she asks the young woman her opinion on Roe v. Wade to which the not-so-bright young thing replies that she does not follow boxing. Before the cut to the commercial, Viola leaps out of her seat and jumps upon the poor subject, hands around her neck, both women and the chair tumbling to the ground. One of the slapstick gems that work occurs in Viola’s imagination: chatting amiably with Charlie, Viola suddenly pushes the young woman’s head into a plate of cake over and over, and as Charlie emerges, chocolate covering her face, photographer Russell Carpenter cuts back to Viola, who is simply sitting and chatting with the young woman who is the object of her anxiety. Slapstick nudges wit aside in the comedy, which is not in itself a bad thing, but the one-joke premise becomes tedious after a while. Unlike the happenings in “Meet the Parents,” there simply are not that many diverse events in “Monster-in-Law” to keep the comedy fresh. There is virtually no chemistry between Vartan and Lopez, a failing that’s typical of many a romance that does not click. On the whole, Robert Kuketic did a lot better with “Legally Blonde,” which has the freshness of premise as a perky sorority girl is accepted at Harvard Law School and shows us that she has more smarts than you’d expect. Rated PG-13. 95 minutes © 2005 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com | 
