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Charlie (Jennifer Lopez) isn’t the most decisive of women. She can’t seem to decide what she wants to do with her life—which is why she tends to move from job to job as a temp. She walks dogs. She works in catering. She answers phones at a doctor’s office. She’s dabbled in art, yoga instruction, and much more. But when she meets Kevin (Michael Vartan), she has no problem deciding how she feels about him. And since Kevin feels the same way, he decides it’s time to take Charlie to meet his mother.
Kevin’s mother, Viola (Jane Fonda), is a famous TV personality who’s interviewed everyone from the Dali Lama to the cast of Good Times. She’s been married four times, but her marriages don’t last long, so her life revolves around her career and her only son. When Viola’s replaced for a younger model, she has a total meltdown, and she ends up in a psychiatric hospital. When she gets out, she’s eager to spend more time with Kevin. But then she finds out about Charlie.
So Kevin brings Viola and Charlie together—and everything is going just fine until Kevin, relieved that the two are getting along so well, gets down on one knee and proposes. Suddenly, Viola realizes that this no-good gold-digging hussy is about to take her son away—and she decides to do everything in her power to stop it. While she keeps up appearances for her son (they’re the best of girlfriends, she tells him), as soon as Kevin turns his back, Viola declares war.
I’ll admit that I didn’t hear a lot of good things about this movie—but I wanted to see it anyway. There was just something about the chemistry (if you can call it that) between Lopez and Fonda that drew me in. And I wasn’t disappointed. Rumor has it that the two divas battled on set—which only made their on-screen battles even better. Yes, I know the story’s been done before (see Meet the Parents), but Monster-in-Law puts a new—and less painful—twist on the same old story. Unlike Meet the Parents, Monster-in-Law never gave me that uncomfortable feeling that things had gone too far. Charlie doesn’t just take it and bumble her way through like poor Greg Focker. She and Viola are well-matched—and they do battle as only women can.
This movie’s greatest problem, however, is the way the ending falls flat. Instead of going all-out for an outrageous, darkly humorous free-for-all in the end, the writer stuck with a hearts-and-flowers Hollywood ending that comes off as a serious let-down after a wonderful 90-minute build-up. But since it’s a Hollywood movie, I’m not going to totally pan it for having a Hollywood ending. After all, the rest of the movie is hilarious. J-Lo’s not bad at all—and Wanda Sykes is spectacular as Viola’s wisecracking assistant. Monster-in-Law is well worth seeing (especially if you liked Meet the Parents). If you’re able to overlook the ending (and a few little holes), you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did.
