“Jennifer’s Body” (20th Century Fox)
It’s Not the Body That’s the Problem, It’s the Script
Megan Fox provides a beautiful body for the film “Jennifer’s Body” but Diablo Cody doesn’t support her with a beautiful script. This tale of a high school girl who is a flesh eating monster lacks bite. The script is neither funny enough nor sympathetic enough. It either had to be over the hill funny or sweetly endearing in some way. It misses on both counts.
Jennifer (Fox) is a flag girl at a small town high school. She is best friends with a girl named Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and she totally dominates her life. Needy has a boyfriend named Chip (Johnny Simmons) but his needs are always secondary to those of Jennifer.
Needy discovers that Jennifer is a man eater in the literal sense, but she can’t convince anyone to take her seriously. Still when Jennifer turns her eyes towards Chip, Needy decides it is time to take matters into her own hands.
Fox is as sexy and sensuous as she was in both “Transformers” movies, but she isn’t sympathetic. And neither is Needy. One or both of them needs to be. Remember we all loved “Carrie” even when she was tearing down the gym, and dispatching tons of high school students to their deaths.
There is a side plot involving a rock group headed up by a guy named Nikolai Wolf (Adam Brody) but it doesn’t grab your interest. Maybe this is where the comedy could have come in but it doesn’t. It verges on it but never crosses over.
The film is rated R for violence and profanity.
Jennifer’s Body” is a movie that lacks heart. You never care about Jennifer, or Needy, or any of Jennifer’s victims. They are all cardboard thin characters who don’t make any impact of any kind. With Diablo Cody of “Juno” fame writing the script you expect more bang for your buck. She didn’t provide any excitement in this film and no cutting edge comedy to lift it up.
Mark this one down as a monster movie that is basically toothless. Megan Fox tries her hardest but to no avail. The body is great but the movie is flat.
I scored “Jennifer’s Body” a fleshy 5 out of 10.