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Film review

A monstrous comeback

Jane Fonda's shrill return to the screen in a bland, graceless film that's as predictable as a television sitcom will shock fans who expected more.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published May 12, 2005

Monster-in-Law is billed as a romantic comedy, but it's actually a mystery: Why did Jane Fonda, one of the finest actors of her generation, choose this undernourished script as her comeback project after 15 years away from the screen?

Maybe her last co-star, Robert De Niro, told Fonda how much fun he had making Meet the Parents and its sequel - and cashing the paychecks. Perhaps the movie is just another promotional tool for her recently published autobiography. Could it be that the Oscar-winning actor couldn't miss posing alongside Jennifer Lopez, who's as hot as Fonda used to be?

I honestly don't have a clue.

But here she is, and the legacy of a distinguished actor is tarnished for it. Monster-in-Law plays like an extended pilot for a sitcom that wouldn't even make UPN's fall lineup.

Fonda plays Viola Fields, a Barbara Walters doppelganger whose TV career is ruined when she assaults a Britney Spears-type bubblehead on the air. Why? Because after a career that placed her on equal footing with world leaders, she can't handle getting old. Viola also can't stand that her son, Kevin (Michael Vartan) wants to marry Charlotte "Charlie" Cantilini (Lopez), a part-time dog walker and waiter. Whether it's age or maternal smothering that immediately causes friction is unclear. Milking that friction for cheap laughs is all director Robert Luketic has in mind.

Luketic and screenwriter Anya Kochoff aren't bold enough to make this a War of the Roses dark comedy, which might have improved the laugh quotient. No, this is a slow volley of predictable put-downs and pranks that border on aggravated assault. As the lowlight, Charlie drugs Viola during dinner, causing her to flop face first into a plate of beef tripe. That's when we realize Fonda is waist-deep in something much less appetizing.

The movie regularly changes direction, almost at the 22-minute intervals (minus commercials) that sitcoms use during those very special "arcs" when a big-name guest star goes slumming for four or five episodes. It's supposed to be funny when Viola arranges an engagement party and doesn't tell Charlie it's a formal affair. Or when Viola feigns illness to move into Charlie's home so she can keeps tabs on her rival, and Charlie retaliates by letting dogs chew Viola's clothes to bits. It isn't funny, and the thought that anyone, especially Fonda, thought it would be is rather depressing.

Thank heavens for Wanda Sykes, playing Viola's personal assistant and regularly adding a pinch of spice to this bland stew. Sykes' deadpan approach is appreciated after Fonda's shrill delivery of her lines - comedy was never her forte - and whatever it is that Lopez is doing on screen. Sykes seems vaguely aware that this film is a turkey, a justified cynicism that suits her character, if only by sheer luck.

If not for Fonda's presence, Monster-in-Law would quickly shuttle in and out of theaters into home video obscurity. It still may, if audience intuition doesn't fail. But unless Fonda buys all the copies and burns them, this is a sad curtain call and places a question mark, instead of an exclamation point, on a successful career.

Grade: D+

Director: Robert Luketic

Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Wanda Sykes, Michael Vartan, Anna Parisse

Screenplay: Anya Kochoff

Rating: PG-13; profanity, sexual humor

Running time: 95 min.

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 09:32:06]