 Critics are scratching their heads, trying to figure out what prompted Jane Fonda to return to the screen after 15 years in the comedy Monster-in-Law. Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is one of them, writing, "Why Fonda chose this embarrassing project for her first film in 15 years is, as they say, a puzzlement." Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune apparently thinks he's figured it out: "Perhaps the challenge of trying to energize mediocrity is just what she needed after her inactive years," he writes. Similarly, Wesley Morris writes in the Boston Globe that it's "insane that Fonda's first big part in so long is so grotesque. But by Hollywood standards, a movie carried with such gusto by a 67-year-old woman has to be considered a miracle." Jennifer Lopez costars in the movie with Fonda, but she's mostly ignored by the critics. To Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the idea of J.Lo and Fonda locking horns "sounds like fun. But Monster-in-Law, where Bridezilla meets Godzilla, is a comedy so anemic, so toxic, that even Dracula wouldn't bite." Stephen Holden in the New York Times describes it as "a comedy so one-dimensional and craven that it makes Meet the Parents look avant-garde." But Lou Lumenick in the New York Post, calling Fonda "a hoot and a half," remarks that the movie is "a cannily selected vehicle that's more than funny enough to relaunch [Fonda] as a major movie star." |
