Review:
Is Jennifer’s Body the Only Reason to Sit Through the Worst Film of 2009?

Is Jennifer’s Body the only reason to sit through the worst film of 2009?

Jennifer’s Body, Directed by Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux) and written by Diablo Cody (Juno) is a black comedy set in an American High school. Titular Jennifer is a cheerleader played by Megan Fox who is best friends with Needy played by Amanda Seyfried. Their friendship, which is portrayed with homo-erotic over-tones shows them at a local gig one night. The gig goes awry and Jennifer disappears with the band leaving Needy alone. The next time we see Jennifer she is something else entirely and although still craving men it is for calorie intake only. It is then up to Needy to work out what happened to her friend and attempt to save the day.

From here the audience is taken on an unusual ride with characters given dialogue that is often quite painful and hard to digest. Diablo Cody, who displayed a flair for great lines in Juno, here sinks to an all time low with lines such as “so lesbigay,” “I gotta wettie,” and “freak tarded” not helping us identify with any of the cast whatsoever.

Megan Fox, shows that although not a flexible actress, she can poke fun at herself and does actually manage to make you hate Jennifer, which aids the story. The problem with the film is that the tone shifts so frequently it sits uncomfortably in the genre. The comedy could have played much better, yet frequently tries to attain laughs from curse words rather than well written situations.

Technically, the film has some real money shots, particularly Jennifer swimming in the lake in close up. However, they draw attention to the fact that the film is suffering from an identity crisis.

Effects work is generally of a high standard and the film has a great soundtrack along with punchy DTS sound.

Jennifer’s Body garnered Fox a Razzie for her performance. The performance in question remains the same throughout; whether playing high school bitch or hell demon man-hunter, her detached manner does nothing but show what fun this role could have been if given to a powerhouse actress instead. Luckily Amanda Seyfried manages to make something of her second best friend role but is unable to make up for the poorly written story.

In short, Jennifer’s Body could have been a real fun movie but instead ends up a mix of lots of different movies. The sucker punch is, those movies were better written and more tonally consistent. If you are a fan of Megan Fox or to be more specific, a fan of her body, you will probably love this film.