Jennifer's Body (2009)

Artwork for Theatrical Release

I really have no need to watch this film other than as a guilty pleasure, and not for the reason that you think.  My guilty pleasure is not the beautiful and misunderstood in quality of talent Megan Fox, although sometimes in this film, you could see why.  My guilty pleasure is the oft mispronounced  Amanda Seyfried, and there it really doesn't disappoint.

The film is beautifully creepy, but not a thriller.  Eerie, but not a horror film.  And very sexual, although less satisfied than a badly shot porn, in laser disc.  And that maybe is the problem here, the lack of purpose and definition.

Based on the trailers attached to the DVD I watched, it seems to have been intended to be quirky and dorky and sort of counter culture, but the casting says otherwise (sans Seyfried and Amy Sedaris), and the script begs for more substance, so it falls into a weird chasm between mainstream and alternative, never pleasing anyone completely, regardless of what you go into this film hoping for.

The cinematography is good, including a really cool high angle shot of Amanda Seyfried in the holding cell both at the beginning and end of the film and an awesome and appropriate long tracking shot of a grieving football player.  Although the stunt coordination on the floating fight scene takes away from what otherwise would have been a very violent and erotic and energetic fight scene (three things I think the film excels in otherwise), and so the camerawork suffers in that because of other stakeholders.

The acting is not particularly bad, or at least not as bad as you would have expected considering the frivolous nature of the casting and marketing.  Having watched Megan Fox on many of her movies and her multitude of TV appearances, she's not really a bad actress when she's trying, the problem is that, even in this film alone as a macrocosm, there are marked differences from scene to scene and that's a shame.

Artwork for Theatrical Release

The music is enjoyable and properly suited to its endeavor.  Which is not surprising for a film designed the way this one is.  Although for most of the film, it's the music that does most of the modd setting; thrilling, sexuality and all, not the editing or the choreography of the action.

The locations are great and help set the mood of the film somewhere between the vast emptiness of The Shining () and the sanguiness of Suburban teenage life, so props to the scout.  Although, speaking of props, the models of the dead victims look atrocious.  Even worse than the toothpicks left behind in the neck of the original Friday the 13th, upon the beheading of a Vorhees.

The editing is sometimes just appalling moving the needle in the opposite direction of the desired mood.  Although as a whole, the average of the editing is just a nudge below average including some of the cut-aways that are simply stupidly unnecessary, and although I want to blame the editor, it might be the director's fault, or considering Diablo Cody is the executive producer, it might just be her fault since most of the problems seem to be structure and gimmick based.

The script is uneven, with some horrible lines and, at best, some OK ones, but no memorable ones.  Not to mention Diablo Cody never seems to have defined most of her characters, including whether Jennifer (Megan Fox) is always possessed, once bitten, and just reverting back as a means of manipulating Needy (Amanda Seyfried), or whether she's, even before becoming a Satanic morsel, straddling those lines like a stereotypical teenager.

Most of the dialogue seems fitting coming out of Amanda Seyfried in this film and Ellen Page in Juno (2007), but forced and illustriously shocking coming out of Megan Fox.  Some of the lines also seem to be Cody trying to make an unnecessary witty comment on an aspect of society, even if in a vacuum, the characters would never say that and worse yet it may be inappropriate in the situation, which is different than Juno (2007).

Artwork for Theatrical Release

The bigger problem with  the script are the HUGE plot holes, which are things that normally don't disturb me, but here they seem to jump out beyond the fourth wall, straight into that part of your brain that suspends disbelief.  SPOILERS ALERT:  Like why would the dock be wet before Megan Fox comes out of the lake.  Why would Amanda Seyfried's character (Needy) be afraid of someone knocking on her door immediately after the catastrophic and weirdly cathartic fire, when, if anything, she should be happy about the affirmation that Megan Fox (Jennifer) is safe. How the frack does Needy know where Chip, her boyfriend, and Jennifer are towards the end of the film?  And why would the jock's parents be crying on the other side of the police tape as their son is wheeled away from the crime scene.  Specially the mother who two scenes later would be described by her neighbor as being catatonic.

WTF?  (which here means...watch this film)

No really I mean it, if anything because Amanda Seyfried is brilliantly creepy once she's demonized, and would be a perfect usurper of Jack Nicholson or even as Sissy Spacek in their creepy thrilling culturally relevant acting turns, which is more than this film could aim for.

Rent this film and catch it when you're looking for frivolity and simple merriment, but just don't expect to have as much fun as you did watching Juno (2007).