Plot is thin, predictable in ‘Monster-in-Law’

In theaters

MONSTER-IN-LAW, Directed by Robert Luketic, written by Anya Kochoff, 102 minutes, rated PG-13.

In the broad new comedy, “Monster-in-Law,” Jane Fonda emerges from her recent tobacco bath to take on her first movie role in 15 years. The good news? At 67, Fonda is still smoking.

Here, she is Viola Fields, an internationally famous, well-preserved talk show host who isn’t exactly on the fast track to sainthood.

Viola is what you might call a clawful. As difficult as she is accomplished, as deadly as she is disarming, she’s a lethal woman whose less than desirable traits ? a mean right hook to the jaw, a willingness to poison if things don’t go her way, motherly greed, toxic love, jealousy, hypocrisy, name-dropping, rage?come to a head when she loses her television show to a young upstart hired for her perkiness and youth.

For Viola?and for the world, really?things only worsen when her only son, Kevin (Michael Vartan), a doctor with the personality of a shrub, gives his heart to the sunniest of multitaskers.

That would be Charlie Cantilini (Jennifer Lopez), a bright blast of struggling good cheer who does all sorts of things to hammer out a living.

For instance, mid-30s Charlie spends her days walking dogs along the beach in her pigtails and short shorts. Isn’t she sweet? She also temps as a secretary at a doctor’s office, serves shrimp balls at swank parties without a trace of irony, and dabbles in her own designer duds.

Somehow, she also has time to wax cute, which is enough for Kevin but not exactly enough for the movie. J.Lo, you see, is way out of her league here ? she’s so banal, so safe, so out-classed by the rest of the cast, some might not even realize she’s in the movie until it’s half over.

That’s due in large part to Fonda’s ferocious, go-for-broke performance, which is set to full burn, and to Wanda Sykes’ biting turn as Viola’s corrosive assistant, Ruby, whose job it is to observe the mayhem through cutting asides. Obviously, these two came to have fun and to steal the show, which they do, neatly achieving a nuclear boil when Viola decides there’s no way in hell her son is going to marry Charlie.

As directed by Robert Luketic (“Legally Blonde”) from a script by Anya Kochoff, “Monster-in-Law” features a plot that’s as thin and as predictable as Lopez’s singing voice, and the story never is as dark or as mean as it should have been. Still, it does have its moments, particularly when Elaine Stritch shows up to level the landscape as Viola’s own evil monster-in-law, and it does fulfill its promise as a light comedy.

Anyone looking for something deeper might be disappointed.

Grade: B-

On video and DVD

KINSEY, Written and directed by Bill Condon, 118 minutes, rated R.

Bill Condon’s “Kinsey” is a quick, satisfying two hours of watching people talk about sex, explore sex and have sex. And not just any people.

The movie is based on the life of zoologist and sex researcher Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey (Liam Neeson), the Bowdoin graduate who shook the world in 1948 with the publication of his book “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,” and again in 1953 with the publication of its companion book, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.”

Fueled by Kinsey’s frank, nonjudgmental interviews with thousands of U.S. citizens about their sex lives and sexual habits, the books stunned, liberated, validated and bothered plenty.

And why not? When Kinsey began his research in the late ’30s, the United States, stunted by its puritanical roots, wasn’t exactly ready for the open conversation about sex that Kinsey offered. Some would argue it still isn’t.

Told in flashback, this smart, sophisticated film follows Kinsey’s life from his childhood in Hoboken, N.J., where he was raised by a moralistic father (John Lithgow) for whom sex was a filthy act, to his unconventional marriage to Clara McMillen (Laura Linney), his rise to national prominence as a researcher of gall wasps and then of sex, his unusually close relationships with his students (Chris O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton), and his fall into ruin.

Condon navigates it all with affection. He doesn’t deify Kinsey?too many flaws for that?but he does try to give the man his due in spite of the air of hysteria that still plagues Kinsey and his work.

Kinsey’s approach to studying human sexuality has long been controversial, even among his most liberal of supporters?he believed sexuality could be measured solely by scientific means, thus negating emotions.

But Condon sees the bigger picture. Kinsey’s research allowed millions to feel guiltless about their sex lives and fantasies, thus allowing them to lead fuller lives. He put sex on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, in living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms, and he sparked the conversations that followed. As such, he was partly responsible for the sexual revolution.

Throughout, the acting is excellent. As Kinsey, Neeson reclaims the greatness that defined him in “Schindler’s List.” He is passionate, intense, funny. As Clara, Linney paints a vivid portrait of a woman so far ahead of her time, she’s even ahead of our time. She is the movie’s balance, the one element that keeps “Kinsey” grounded even as Kinsey himself teeters over the edge.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.