Pleasant enough in the opening, a young, average, beautiful girl falls in love with a rich handsome doctor. This act is light, fun, very very average. Soon enough we learn that the doctor's mother is a TV talk show diva who's just lost her job (which is the only thing she cared about, besides her son). With nothing left in her life to keep her sane, she aims both barrels of her hysteria toward the bride-to-be.
And so begins the second act with some momentum. However, any robust inertia quickly dissipates as the plot takes pointless, senseless twists just so the two women can inflict themselves on each other. Rather than being something special, "Monster In-Law" replays "Guess Who" and "Meet the Fockers" and and and.
The second act flat-lines into the third act that would have fallen completely dead were it not for a spicy bullheaded actress and some good lines. In fact, to be fair, the film does have its moments. I laughed. I rooted for the home team. And all involved perform more or less admirably (even the less important characters are also believable). It was the plot that wasn't. Oh, and kudos to Wanda Sykes, she makes a great wisecracking assistant to the monster. That said, the moments that were bad, were very bad. I winced more than once.
Says Jane Fonda of Lopez, "...this woman is deeply talented. She really knows her stuff. I can see her directing one day because she knows how to plan out each scene and she's not scared to try anything. She is very smart... We worked very well together, although I did get a little jealous when [director] Robert Luketic put her picture on his computer's screen saver!"
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