Monster-in-Law **½ (2005, Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan, Elaine Stritch, Adam Scott) – Classic Movie Review 2046

After a gap of 15 years (since 1990’s Stanley & Iris), the 67-year-old movie legend Jane Fonda returns to the screen in 2005 in a monster part as the prospective mother-in-law from hell who takes on the new fiancée Charlotte (Jennifer Lopez) of her nice doctor son Kevin (Michael Vartan) in a battle royal.

Just recovered from a nervous breakdown after being fired from her TV show job for being – gasp, shock, horror! – too old, Fonda decides to scare off her son Kevin’s girl. Charlotte’s love life has been reduced to disastrous blind dates until she meets the perfect man in Kevin but his merciless mother will stop ay nothing to destroy their relationship. J-Lo’s Charlotte then decides to return the punches with Fonda’s Viola Fields – literally!

Director Robert Luketic’s 2005 female version of Meet the Parents stays an old-fashioned, lightweight sitcom, and doesn’t try for too much subtlety, credibility or logic. There is a steady stream of funny lines and amusing situations, though the stars, not ideally cast in farcical roles, sometimes have to struggle to raise their laughs.

Still, old pro Fonda attacks her part with commendable gusto, wiping everyone else off screen, apart from Wanda Sykes, who is hilarious as her cynical, long-suffering assistant. It’s a pity that Elaine Stritch doesn’t have more to do at the end as Fonda’s mother-in-law. Also in the cast are Adam Scott (as Remy), Annie Parisse, Monet Mazur, Will Arnett, Stephen Dunham and Randee Heller. Anya Kochoff’s screenplay is serviceable if not inspired or too gag-packed.

Fonda says: ‘I didn’t miss making movies at all, but this script came along and playing this outrageous character was unlike anything I’d done before – and I needed the money!’

Double Oscar-winner Fonda was honoured with her seventh Oscar nomination for The Morning After (1986), which her last Oscar nominated role before she retired from films in 1990.

Elaine Stritch died on July 17 2014, aged 89.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2046

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Adam Scott (as Remy).

Fonda was honoured with her seventh Oscar nomination for The Morning After (1986).