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By Dawn Januszkewicz
We begin in the clouds, soaring with G-Girl, played by Uma Thurman, and watch her in action. From there we watch her change into Jenny Johnson. G-Girl is what would happen if meteors regularly fell to earth; and if only they did, we gals could use an allied force.
The boy meets girl scene on the subway should have left the audience rife with excitement and sexual tension. In this climactic scene, our primary protagonist, Matt Saunders, played by Luke Wilson, and antagonist meet. However, like a bottle of soda left uncapped, the scene has been revealed in the trailer in its entirety, and due to the exposure, the tension was flat. What this encounter does offer, that cannot be surmised from the trailer, is a delightful role reversal, where a character as honest, passive and naïve as Clark Kent hits on a modern Lois Lane that is an aggressive, selfish, histrionic super hero.
The movie provides a logical chain of events that makes the action somewhat predictable. The jokes, however, string you along. There were scenes that made Superman just look like a prude, because G-Girl is the dark super hero that whines about the good deeds she performs. She nearly let her city fall under siege of missiles because Saunders and her are having dinner with his pretty co-worker whom posed a threat even to G-Girl.
There was one surprise in the film. Eddie Izzard plays G-Girl's old love interest Professor Bedlam (Barry) and dresses like a man!
All in all, the most enjoyable part of the movie was the oxymoron of a flawed superhero, the super neurotic and slightly psychopathic girl none of us want to be, yet might be tempted to imitate on the rare occasion. G-Girl's actions were over-the-top, unrelentless, unjustified and just plain mean, but considering she was a mirror of torment many young girls tend to or consider resorting to, she was damn funny.
Everyone seems to have something to say about Thurman in this summer flick. You love her and enjoy watching her take a different kind of role or you avoid the movie because you expect a Poison Ivy performance. Ultimately, Thurman was looking forward to playing this character. She had wanted to perform in a comedy for some time now. This movie provided a great role for Thurman. Unlike any character she's ever played, G-Girl/Jenny Johnson featured a full and humorous variety of traits to portray, being that her character possessed traits from both sides of the coin.
Wilson, playing G-Girl's boyfriend, Saunders, delivers a solid performance. His character is gentle, passive and therefore very similar to all of his characters. But this character, a tortured Clark Kent, delivers a believable doormat.
Izzard, as always, steals the spotlight. Whether good or bad, he has mastered stage presence and projects personality in every glance. He plays the absurd nemesis of G-Girl, who worked hard to achieve wealth and super villainry after an adolescence of ridicule.
Wanda Sykes, as Saunders' boss, adds another layer of humor with her obsession of eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace. She regularly insists this gentle doormat is a sexual beast, harassing his closest colleague and friend, Hannah Lewis, played by Anna Faris. Despite the subject of the movie being about male/female relationships, sexual harassment in this movie is just a polka dot red herring.
Faris plays the object of sexual interest. She is the cute friend all the boys love. She is fun, innocent and plays Saunders' ideal girlfriend. She plays the character well, but there is little challenge in the role. Faris and Wilson do portray a natural chemistry on screen.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is an enjoyable, light summer flick that is, no doubt, bound to be forgotten by the end of summer. The humor and satire were affective, but predictable movies usually don't receive lasting attention. Such is the plight of enjoyable movies. They may be fun, but they are not groundbreaking or artful expressions of the human condition, so they are replaced by the next fun flick in the limited memory of movie goers. All is fair in greed and glitz.
0 8 . 1 7 . 0 6
Perpetual Toxins © 2006-2007 - All Rights Reserved |
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t's a bird, it's a plane, no, no, it's a great white shark? This guy flick takes a surprise turn around a bitter corner when the crazy girl magnet ends a relationship with a neurotic and vindictive super hero. The trailers give the impression that My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a comical movie that is reminiscent of High Fidelity by profiling the dating habits of men strictly from their point of view. Yet, the opening moments of the movie dismiss this impression and you realize this movie is less brainy and focuses more on the neurotic super hero than her former flame.
