COMMUNICATION ISSUES IN THE MOTION PICTURE FILM

Communication Issues in the Motion Picture Film

Mother in Law

After a fifteen year absence from theaters Jane Fonda returns, inexplicably choosing a Jennifer Lopez vehicle as her means of re-entry. Her last movie was Stanley & Iris opposite Robert De Nero, which leaves Monster In-Law as quite a step down. But it is Fonda that lifts it above the plumbs of a typically bad Meet the Parents clone, and the movie might have been better served had it simply tossed out the Lopez character and given us more of her.

Alas there's no escaping J-Lo. The over-exposed diva headlines the film as Charlotte, a brain dead, super cute gal who falls hopelessly in love with a doctor. Lopez plays her as if she's some sort of floppy, valley-girl Muppet; a 5 year old trapped in the body of a 36 year old. It's one of the worst performances of this year and Lopez, who's proven she can do better, should be called to task for it. It doesn't help that the movie wastes so much time setting up a relationship between her and Michael Varian, the film's pretty boy love interest. Varian and Lopez have absolutely zero chemistry, and it's a blessing that once Monster stops dragging around at manufacturing their romance that the two are less frequently together. (Monster-in-Law , 2005)

Things pick up a bit when we find out that her doctor boyfriend has a mother named Viola, played by Jane Fonda. Recently released from the Looney bin, where she was imprisoned for attempting to strangle a Britney Spears clone in mid-interview, Viola is none too pleased with her son's choice in girlfriends. Things only get worse when her forgettable handsome son announces his and Charlotte's engagement. Long past the realm of sanity, the vicious Viola plots to destroy Charlotte and break up their impending nuptials, with her son none the wiser. With the help of her wisecracking assistant Ruby (Wanda Sykes), the pair forms a wild comedic duo of bad natured punishers. (Monster-in-Law , 2005)

The men hanging around in the story are little more than props, hapless idiots unaware that it is the women in their lives who are the real power brokers. When Charlotte finally wakes up to her future mother in-law's intentions, her personality does a sudden flip flop. Charlotte becomes every bit the dastardly villain her mother is, and the cutesy, dumb, dog-walker is cast aside in favor of someone disturbed and clearly amoral. It's a huge misstep in the film when Charlotte starts feeding her husband's mother dangerous medication. She's become worse than Viola, and much less funny. Not only is it completely unlike the sweet, semi-retarded character J-Lo has been working so hard to bludgeon us with, but it also makes Charlotte terminally unlikable. (Monster-in-Law , 2005)

With no one worth rooting for, Monster in-Law grinds to a predictable finish. Everyone loves each other and the attempted murder perpetrated earlier in the script is swept playfully under the ...