Gail sees a movie: Jennifer’s Body
When Needy Lesnicky (Amanda Seyfried) says her best friend Jennifer (Megan Fox) is evil, boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons) agrees. Needy corrects him saying, “No, I mean, she’s actually evil. Not high school evil.” If, like me, lines like this have you rubbing your hands together in delight, you should savor this smart, funny and creepy horror film.
Jennifer and Needy (short for Anita) have been best friends since kindergarten. As high schoolers in the town of Devil’s Kettle, Jennifer controls the friendship. Jennifer is a beautiful bad girl, and Needy is a bit of a dork. In true Hollywood fashion, we are supposed to buy Amanda Seyfried in glasses as the unattractive friend, but I am willing to overlook this because Seyfried is so much fun to watch. When Jennifer and Needy see indie rock band Low Shoulder at a local club, the show has more thrills than expected. And when lead singer Nikolai Wolf (Adam Brody) convinces Jennifer to take a ride in the band’s van, she gets much more than an autograph. Before anyone can ask if there really is a devil in this kettle, young men are turning up dead, and Jennifer is acting stranger than usual. But no one notices except for Needy, because evil Jennifer is not that different from plain nasty and insensitive Jennifer. But can nice girl Needy save boyfriend Chip and stop the evil?
Amanda Seyfried is fast becoming one of my favorite young actresses. She was radiant and charming in Mamma Mia and dark and fascinating in HBO’s excellent Big Love. She makes Needy likeable and strong, and gives us a character to root for in the film. Seyfreid’s eyes and voice show her terror when trapped in her kitchen with Jennifer, and she had me clutching my arm rest. The kiss with co-star Megan Fox garnered lots of advance internet hits, but both actors made it important to the story. Megan Fox is sexy and funny, but makes Jennifer seem evil enough to be scary. Jennifer’s evil smile gave me chills and her line readings (after a serious stab wound, she asks Needy for a tampon) made me laugh, but it never detracted from the film’s scary moments. And Seyfried and Fox have real chemistry, and seem like women who would be friends. Adam Brody, the nice guy in films like In the Land of Women and television’s Gilmore Girls, gets to be a convincing evil rock musician. His sincere and immoral devotion to the success of his band is hilarious, as he capitalizes on a tragedy in Devil’s Kettle with a hit song and then calls the town by the wrong name in interviews.
Jennifer’s Body manages the trick of being a horror movie and a movie about horror movies, and does both very well. Jennifer is sexy and popular and all of her male victims are more than happy to follow her to secluded places. But I did not feel the kind of terror I usually feel for victims in horror movies, and only felt afraid for Needy. This is part of the point of the film. While it is difficult to feel the kind of revulsion for lovely Megan Fox inspired by characters like Freddy and Jason, popular high school girl Jennifer inspires fear on a different level. But it is a more cerebral kind of scare.
Academy award winner Diablo Cody has once again penned a clever script with the kind of intelligent teenage speak used so well in Juno. I particularly loved Jennifer chiding Needy to get over a grudge by saying, “Come on! Moveon.org.” Her take on the indie rock band and high school life is bitingly funny. But fans of Juno should not expect another Juno. This is a horror film, and director Karyn Kusama provides plenty of chills. There is just enough scary to be fun, but nothing like the gore fest some horror junkies crave. The film begins with Needy stating, “Hell is a teenage girl.” It is not until the final frame that we fully understand what this means. I hope incorrect expectations do not hurt this film. It is a horror film for film lovers, and it deserves to be seen.
Jennifer’s Body. Directed by Karyn Kusama. Megan Fox (Jennifer Check), Amanda Seyfried (Needy Lesnicky), Johnny Simmons (Chip), Adam Brody (Nikolai Wolf) and J.K. Simmons (Mr. Wroblewski). Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 2009.
Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.
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Hey Gail,
I really enjoyed the review. I want to see this movie. I think you bring it alive and I love the way you leave some of it up to us to figure out.
So the review is good, but I’ve got a problem, and I’m wondering if you have any advice.
I have an invitation from a “Jennifer” for a walk along Boathouse Row. She wanted to meet me there at 1 a.m. “when we had the place to ourselves.”
I thought this young woman (a graduate of another university) must have been impressed by my sophistication, my style, the elegant way I read online postings of student writings.
Now you’re telling me I need to be alarmed. And to think that the movie is already done …
Jennifer would have killed me and I wouldn’t have even gotten the dignity of being a victim in a movie.
This is alarming. Do you have any advice?
Robert, I am sure Jennifer is impressed by your serious nature and by the way you read online student postings. I would meet her instead at this film, and watch her reactions. I a glad you are alarmed. Like the characters in the film, it seems that me are never afraid of women. I wonder if an evil woman can ever be as frightening an evil man.
I enjoyed your review. I am not surprised, however, that the movie has done poorly. My daughter, who is 15 and who you would expect is the target audience here, saw it and hated it. She said it wasn’t scary enough to be a horror movie, and wasn’t funny enough to be a more-funny-than-scary horror movie.
I am a big chicken, and won’t watch any kind of horror movie. Not even one with Megan Fox in it.
Thanks, Alan. A much younger friend of mine made exactly the same comment as your daughter. I think this film is really for adults, although it may be marketed to teens.