Writer Diablo Cody’s new film, “Jennifer’s Body,” is, despite its big budget, nothing more than a “B” horror movie.
A B horror movie is typified by gore, sexually exploitative material, and a mediocre story. “Jennifer’s Body” easily fits into all of these categories. What is meant to be the predominate allure of this film is the body mentioned in the title, or rather, actress Megan Fox’s body for that matter. Despite all this, “Jennifer’s Body” is not a complete and utter lose.
“Jennifer’s Body” manages to garner more than just a few chuckles, as the film seems to be self-aware of its ridiculous and campy nature. The film is intentionally bizarre and takes pleasure in being as ridiculous as possible. “Jennifer’s Body” does suffer from a few flaws that keep it from being a credible B horror film, namely the lack of an actual story, a half-hearted lesbian subplot, and bizarre directorial choices.
Jennifer, played by Megan Fox, is picked up by an indie band, which plans on sacrificing her to Satan in an attempt to become famous. The band fails at the ritual and Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon as a result. Jennifer’s best friend Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried, is charged with figuring out what has happened to Jennifer while keeping her own relationship from dissolving.
Diablo Cody has imbued her script with a unique atmosphere but no amount of clever witticisms and endearingly crude colloquial phrases can cover up the complete lack of story. The first hour of “Jennifer’s Body” is a meandering attempt to showcase Megan Fox’s sex appeal and appease the audience with the least amount of gore as possible. Through it all, the audience is expected to be mystified and entranced by Jennifer’s unique choice of meals for far to long.
The most irritating aspect of “Jennifer’s Body,” story faults aside, is the relationship between Needy and Jennifer. The relationship between Needy and Jennifer wavers between blatantly and subtly homosexual. The problem is not in the homosexual nature of their relationship, but that the tension in their relationship is not treated seriously or truthfully. It feels as if it is tacked on merely as a gimmick to get the attention of the male audience and have an excuse for Jennifer and Needy to “play boyfriend and girlfriend,” as Jennifer subtly states.
“Jennifer’s Body” could have treated the relationship tensions between its characters as a story element and fully developed them into a believable conflict that would have kept the story interesting, but the film falls abruptly short in this arena. Anything and everything concerning the friendship between these two girls is not properly explained or given the proper screen time. This lack of attention to character relationships undermines and cripples the entire film.
The third major fault of this film would be the choices made by the director. Despite being a story about a possessed girl who eats boys, the audience never really sees anyone get eaten. The film spends all of its time concentrating on Jennifer’s body and not enough time on what she’s doing to everyone else’s. In a film about a girl who eats young boys, I don’t think a little bit of gore is asking for too much in an “R” rated film, which instead earns its rating from the obvious sexual content. “Jennifer’s Body” feels as if it is an example of a great premise that was mangled by the director.
“Jennifer’s Body” is consistently funny. The film does not take itself seriously and allows the audience to enjoy themselves and laugh at how ludicrous it truly is. The acting is solid and believable but the roles do not scream for the highest caliber of talent.
Megan Fox is continuously portraying a seductive succubus gone awry and Amanda Seyfried, is consistently and believably the cute girl next door. The shallowness of their portrayals completely sum up the shallowness of high school. One and a half stars.
