Monster-in-Law (2005) Reviews

• The Fabulous Jane Fonda And The Dog Walker

  arichmondfwc2006-01-30

  Everyone I know went to see "Monster In Law" for Jane Fonda and in spite of J Lo. If you go with that spirit, you just may have a reasonable good time. I hadn't realized how much I missed Jane Fonda and how wonderful she is, she was she will always be. The film in itself is just too terrible for words. A showdown between a possessive mother and a dog walker. The script is unbelievable bad and the aforementioned Jennifer Lopez is, poor thing, atrocious. She has the lightness of an elephant and the charm of a blank page but, look at the billing...Jennifer Lopez right on top, above Jane Fonda. Ridiculous isn't it? But that's what, I imagine, marketing people decide. What a shame. If I had been Miss Lopez, I would have used my power to demand that Jane Fonda's name should appear above mine. I know, I live in a fantasy world of respect and, if nothing else, good manners. The film may turn out to be useful as a teaching tool. To show both actresses together for a how to and how not to. I'm sure Jennifer Lopez must have been told by someone that she has to cultivate her craft. Her voice, goodness! A jarring, shrilling clash of tonsils and nasal sounds. Too late to play cute, virginal girls. A dog walker indeed!

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• The Legend And The Temp

  wlawson602006-05-15

  I had such a thrill watching the unsinkable Jane Fonda making a wonderful fool of herself that I've actually saw it twice. The second time with my thumb on the fast forward. I've watched Jane's Viola interview that Brittany Spears clone many, many times. It's outrageously close to the knuckle and Fonda goes for it, body and soul. The problem resides elsewhere. I hope Jennifer Lopez has someone around her who can tell her the truth. She is so bad that the film can't recover from the heaviness of her romantic turns. She is the iceberg to this particular titanic. There is not a moment of sincerity in her entire performance and the fact that she is standing opposite one of the most truthful of actresses in the history of acting makes her appearance all the more jarring. Jane please, gives as more, Jennifer, go back to school.

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• Fun and delightful

  Gordon-112007-07-22

  This film is about the tug of war between a mother who cannot bear losing her son through marriage, and the daughter in law who does not give in to the mother's manipulative behaviour. The pacing is quite fast for a romantic comedy, as it squeezes in a romantic comedy in the first half and hour and then the tug of war in the last hour. The psychological games they play are clever and fun. Though there is clear rivalry between Charlie and Viola, it is still conveyed in a light hearted and fun way without hatred or malice. It brings out a great message that differences can eventually be solved through honest communication. I find this film fun and delightful.

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• mother

  kairingler2014-01-14

  What an amazing return to the Screen for Jane Fonda, her last film I believe was in 1990. She did an amazing job as the spiteful Mother-In-Law. I've never been a Jennifer Lopez fan , but she did really well in this film.. together the two are a dynamic one two punch, A woman who has several jobs,, one at a dentist's office, and another as a professional dog-walker, she's trying to meet the man of her dreams and one day she does,, they hit it off, but eventually it's' time to meet her mother, at first he is very apprehensive but he finally agrees, much to the daughter's dismay her mother has some issues, and doesn't want to see her daughter get married to anyone.. ever. The stuff that goes on during the film is priceless, countless fights, bickering, trying to one up the other, makes for a wonderful, true to life picture of what its like when you get married and you have to meet the mother in law.. excellent movie

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• Hackneyed script sinks Fonda/Lopez film

  Cliff7292005-05-11

  I can visualize the pitch meeting for "Monster-in-Law": "It's a female version of "Meet the Parents," with Jennifer Lopez as Ben Stiller and Jane Fonda as Robert DeNiro!" And since neither of its stars has been burning up the box office lately—Lopez hasn't had a big hit since The Wedding Planner, and Fonda's been off the big screen for 15 years--I can understand the appeal of a lightweight commercial vehicle. But did it have to be something THIS witless and unoriginal? Monster-in-Law's opening scenes play out the like the pilot for a bad sitcom. Within the first 20 minutes, we've seen Lopez, as Charlotte "Charlie" Cantilini, handle multiple odd-jobs (including dog-walker, isn't THAT quirky), toured her movie-set-funky apartment, and met her obligatory offbeat friends (including, yes, the gay neighbor who enters her place without knocking). And just when it seems impossible for screenwriter Anya Kochoff to stack the clichés any higher, Charlie has not one, not two, but three Meet Cutes with hunky doctor Kevin Fields (Michael Vartan).True love blooms, Kevin proposes, Charlie accepts. Enter Fonda as Kevin's mother Viola, a TV interviewer (think Barbara Walters on steroids) with problems of her own—in her first two scenes, she loses her job and has an on-camera meltdown while interviewing a Britney Spears-ish pop star. Presumably, this is to make Viola a tad sympathetic, a mother who has nothing going for her except her son, which makes her all the more neurotic at the prospect of "losing" him. But even by comedy standards, it takes a huge suspension of disbelief to think Viola's career is over—if Geraldo Rivera can work at network after network after all his gaffes, is there any doubt Viola would have a raft of job offers heading her way? And if Viola simply can't handle her son sharing his life with another woman, why does she keep trying to set him up with a catty former flame? (Lest the uber-Waspish Viola's campaign against Charlie be interpreted as racism, the filmmakers have cast Wanda Sykes as her assistant/confidante.) The movie clunks and thumps from one comic set piece to the next, punctuated by a ham-handed score by David Newman which underscores every punchline and hijink with cues more suitable for a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Vartan does what little he can with the film's most thankless role, but Kochoff's script makes Kevin little more than a MacGuffin with abs, a device to get the plot rolling and nothing else. By the end of the film, Kevin seems so utterly clueless, it's a wonder either of the women in his life want anything to do with him. Sykes fares a bit better—unlike Vartan, her character at least has an inkling of what's going on. The leading ladies certainly seem like good sports—Fonda plops her face into a plate of tripe, Lopez makes a joke about her much-discussed derriere—and every so often, they display enough star power to make us believe they're playing characters and not caricatures. The rest of the time, however, the actresses seem content to go through the motions and cash their checks. The stars—and their fans—deserve better than this.

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