Plot: What’s it about?
It’s hard to imagine that it’s been 15 years since Jane Fonda has appeared in a movie. Yep, 1990’s “Stanley & Iris” was her last work as an actress in a movie. Upon marrying media mogul Ted Turner, she gave it up for him. Of course, now that their marriage is over she was free to return to the screen. What a shame that her return was in this predictable, semi-romantic comedy. The Fonda’s have roots all the way back to Jane’s father, the one and only Henry Fonda. Her brother is Peter and his daughter is Bridget. Alongside the Huston’s, they’re like royalty in Tinsel town. Ms. Fonda has won two Academy Awards, one for “Klute” and the other for “Coming Home” and bearing that in mind made it hard for me to accept her as the scheming and rather comical character she plays in this movie. At any rate, it is nice to see her back on screen and at the age of 67, I’d have to say that she looks as good as most women half her age. Still, this movie was so formulaic that most people need only watch the trailer, but I suffered through the whole thing.
And don’t get me started on J Lo…
For the record, this movie does have a plot. Fonda plays Viola Fields, hostess of an “Oprah-like” talk show (but not Oprah, because there’s a scene in the movie where Viola is pictured with Oprah) who has just been fired and replaced with someone half her age. Her ego couldn’t really handle the change and after a stint in a “rest home” of sorts, she’s ready to go back out and face life. It just so happens that Viola’s son, Kevin (Michael Vartan from TV’s “Alias”) is a successful doctor. He’s met and fallen in love with Charlotte (Jennifer Lopez). Viola takes this personally and as an intrusion into the mother/son relationship. Charlotte is described as a “temp” by Viola and it seems that she does have about a dozen jobs in the course of the movie, yet she still has plenty of time to frolic around with Kevin. Once Kevin has proposed to Charlotte, the fireworks begin. Viola feigns insanity, sabotages the relationship all with the hope that it will break Charlotte and Kevin up. Suffice it to say that we know the two will eventually make up, see themselves for what they are and everyone lives happily ever after? Or would that be too predictable? I suppose this movie isn’t that bad, but after a fifteen year hiatus, it would have been nice to see Fonda in something she does best…drama. This might make a good date movie, but not much more and New Line has wisely beefed up the discs with supplements.
Video: How does it look?
“Monster-In-Law” comes equipped with both a 2.35:1 anamorphic version of the film and a full-frame version too. I watched the widescreen version for this review and I have to say that I was pretty pleased with the visual quality. A few of the scenes seem a bit oversaturated, but for the most part the image displayed a very high level of detail. The mood of the film is supposedly light and breezy and it’s reflected in the transfer – there are lots of warm colors and whites/yellows to boot. The full-frame (we hardly ever get DVD’s with a full-frame transfer on them anymore) version looks fairly good too, but if you have a choice, you know which one to choose.
Audio: How does it sound?
Comedies usually don’t have that solid of a soundtrack and this is certainly no exception. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track more than adequately handles the action, most of which is limited to the front stage. Surround effects aren’t that impressive, but I do recall a few instances in which they were used. This is your run of the mill soundtrack here, nothing really stood out as “excellent”, but then again nothing really stood out as being particularly bad, either.
Supplements: What are the extras?
As mentioned “Monster-In-Law” is a two disc set with the widescreen and full frame versions on the first disc and the supplements on the second. The supplements are robust, but ultimately lacking in any “real” content. Seven deleted scenes are included complete with a Director’s Introduction. These don’t add a whole lot to the movie and were cut because the pacing of them. That and two of them were just a little too over the top. Next up is “Ruby’s Make Up Bag” which is hard to explain…Brittney Spears (who has a cameo in the film) is singing a music video and all of the sudden Ruby (Wanda Sykes) appears and takes over. Odd. There’s a gag reel which is pretty self-explanatory. Next up are four featurettes: “Welcome Back, Jane Fonda”, “Keeping it real with Jennifer Lopez”, “Robert Luketic – The Man Behind the Monster” and “Vartan, The Man”. All of these are pure promotional fluff and don’t offer any added value to the movie. Finally some “Trendsetters” for lifestyle and fashion are included and I’ll leave those to you to find out (or figure out) what it means. Round it out with some trailers and there you go. I was surprised by the lack of a commentary track, but it’s not that big of a deal. “Monster-In-Law” probably isn’t as bad as I made it out to be, just predictable and I’d have liked to see Fonda’s return to screen on a better movie.
