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PLOT: A dreamer/artist type meets Mr. Right, but his meddlesome, narcissistic, probably psychotic mom threatens to ruin their relationship. Hyuk, yuk, etc.
Is Wanda Sykes the funniest woman on the planet? That's what we took away from Monster-In-Law, a soggy romantic comedy ostensibly starring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda.
At least you get two movies for the price of one with Monster-In-Law, one being the frankly boring tale of Lopez and Michael Vartan, her beloved, and the obstacles to their marriage, and the other being a ribald comic outing that pairs Fonda and Sykes as a working team.
Lopez plays an artist/dreamer/dog walker named Charlie. She meets Kevin (Vartan), the man of her dreams, at the beach one day. He's a doctor. It's love. You'll die, they're both so dull. Anyway, they decide to get married.
This does not sit well with Kevin's mother (Fonda) who has just been fired from her high profile TV job.
Already shaky from this huge blow to her ego, Mom goes into nutcase overdrive on the subject of her only child marrying the wrong woman.
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With Sykes along in a wiseacre buddy role, Fonda gets to chew the scenery -- meddling in the wedding plans, patronizing Lopez' character, faking illness for sympathy -- and all in beautiful clothes. She even moves in with her son and future daughter-in-law to perfect the torture. She and Sykes get all the great lines, and by the time the inimitable Elaine Stritch pops up in a brief cameo you can only feel sorry for Miss Lopez.
Monster-In-Law has a stupid script, sure, but you'd think somebody would have had the courtesy to tell Lopez the picture was a comedy. Throughout, she seems coiled tight and terrified to let go of anything, while everyone around her is loose and goofy.
Fonda, to her credit, returns to movies after a lengthy absence by jumping in with both feet and happily making fun of herself. She is outrageous in Monster-In-Law and very funny, and with Sykes in there at her side contributing the sarcastic asides, the film manages a couple of good laughs.
Too bad there's so much else -- cute dog filler, violence fantasies, Lopez' unattractive whining, that stupid script again -- getting in the way of those laughs.
(This film is rated PG)