Jennifer's Body

JENNIFER'S BODY tries to be three things at once: (1) a horror movie, (2) a depiction of the emotional hardships of the high school years, and (3) a comedy. The film fails miserably at the first of these things, does a so-so job at the second one, and (occasionally) fares decently well at the third one. Screenwriter Diablo Cody (who won the best original screenplay Oscar for 2007's JUNO) brings us yet another story that includes an unlikely friendship between the popular cheerleader and the geeky girl. Unfortunately, the results are entirely different here: JUNO may have been imperfect, but it was still a delightful coming-of-age story, whereas JENNIFER'S BODY is a mixed bag of awkwardness, bad horror, and the occasional instance of wit that reminds us of the screenwriter's prior effort.

As I mentioned, JENNIFER'S BODY sort of tries to tackle three genres at once, and the second one I mentioned (the social difficulties of the high school years) initially SEEMS like it'll be the film's main focus, from the voiceover we start getting from Needy (Amanda Seyfried) at the beginning of the film. Once we get into the actual plot, though, this aspect is sort of pushed aside to give more way to the horror/comedy elements, and it only resurfaces whenever we hear other voiceovers from the geeky and insecure Needy. If the filmmakers had wanted to give more weight to this, they should've had more scenes in which we got to witness Needy's frustrations towards her friendship with cheerleader Jennifer (Megan Fox), who always makes it a point of being the "hot one," and the two of them have an implicit agreement that Needy will never "upstage" Jennifer in terms of looks. This would've been wonderful material for the film to explore on an emotional level, and it may have given way for at least a glimmer of the dramatic effectiveness we saw in JUNO, but sadly, it's given very limited importance here.

The majority of JENNIFER'S BODY consists of some oddly-conceived scenes that mix horror with dark comedy. When I say "oddly-conceived" I don't mean it ALL in a bad sense: some of the film's lines are funny (after all, Cody can't have just LOST all her talent, right?), but the horror aspect of the film is, well... pretty horrible. There are two moments in particular that are great evidence of this distinction between the levels of success at each genre that is tackled. The first involves a scene in which Needy is having sex with her boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons), while intercutting with an instance of Jennifer having, um, a different kind of intercourse with another guy. The editing here is very weak and the paralellisms are completely lame (we don't even SEE the gory moment: we just see the shadow of it), BUT the comedic punchline is great: "Did I hurt you? Am I too big?" (said with a smile) The second moment comes during the climax of the film, when we get a terribly unexciting and poorly-realized "fight sequence" of sorts in a dirty, swamp-like pool. There's nothing creative about this climax, EXCEPT for a brilliant moment of irony involving pepper spray that will certainly make the audience laugh. This is exactly my point: JENNIFER'S BODY should've focused more on being a comedy than on being a horror film, because there's no doubt that it would've been way more successful at the former than it is at the latter. There are several other funny lines scattered throughout the film. My only complaint about the comedic aspect is that there are a few too many Jesus jokes (no, it's not because I'm religious and was offended; it's because there were just too many, and they got a little old after a while).

Megan Fox is hampered here in terms of getting a chance to show acting range. People thought that since she had no chance to show any range in TRANSFORMERS, this would be her chance to do so, but they might have to wait longer (or forever). At least she gets a chance to do more here than she did in TRANSFORMERS, but it's far from a career-defining role, which is what it should've been. She's even more hampered by the fact that co-stars Amanda Seyfried and Johnny Simmons actually give solid performances. Seyfried hasn't been bad in anything I've seen her in, and in the case of Simmons, you have to give credit to the casting people for picking such an innocent-looking guy (which fits the character of Chip perfectly). I should also mention here (though I suppose everyone knows it) that the film features a French kiss between Fox and Seyfried. I guess that the fact that it's a kiss between two girls and Megan Fox is one of the two girls will make guys salivate over this and want to watch it over and over again, but for the rest of us, not much to see. Two girls French kissing in a movie was revolutionary 10 years ago when CRUEL INTENTIONS came out, but not so much in 2009.

Remember that scene in JUNO during which Ellen Page and Jason Bateman are sitting on a couch watching a horror movie and discussing their tastes in the genre? It's hard to imagine that Juno and Mark would be too pleased with this, though they might find it enjoyable on a "laughably bad" level, thanks to its occasional success in the humor department. Overall, though, JENNIFER'S BODY is an awkwardly concocted, unscary piece of filmmaking that becomes terribly ridiculous during its final moments.

5/10