Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Jennifer's Body - 3/5

It's hard for me to review this movie. Partially because I'm not sure how to write this review. Should I review Jennifer's Body as a horror film or should I review it under the eye as a teenage pop culture film (similar to say how Sixteen Candles was in the 80s). I mean it didn't quite garner a lot of momentum in either direction but its a combination didn't quite mix either to be a great horror comedy. Thus, I'm as torn on how I like this film as the film itself is on what it wants to be.

On one hand, it definitely has this satirical side to it that is definitely there to poke fun at the youth of today. On this side of the film, it actually works quite well. The extreme conditions of both, essentially cliche, characters and even the ridiculousness of the events surrounding them (the supposedly satanic band was perhaps my favorite part of the film considering how non-satanic they were) create this almost fairy tale morality tale that worked for me. The humor was a bit hit or miss, I'm not sure I caught some of the references since I'm no longer of that age, but I understood what they were shooting for.

On the other deformed hand, this film does have its fair share of problems. Both Fox and Seyfried struggle with their acting (the former mostly due to the fact that we actually have to sympathize with her character and watch her grow far more insane with time) and Needy's (Seyfried) voice over narration lacks a lot of charm that could have made that element fun. The pacing lacks in a bit of places, and it meanders into a few tangential places where the metaphors and symbolism don't quite work like they might, and even though the over the top story works for the majority of the film, it falls flat at the end with the climax and eventual battle between the two leading ladies.

The film does ooze a bit of charm here and there and its satirical approach to the genre and story did it wonders from being the teenage horror film it could have solely catered towards. Jennifer's Body definitely could have been a better film, as it does suffer from careening a bit too far into the modern teen horror market particularly towards the end, but it has some great moments. For me, Jennifer's Body sits right in the middle of the ranking. Not great, but not bad either. 


Written By Matt Reifschneider

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