Maneater

Transformers star Megan Fox has worked hard at making us see her as an unapologetically sexual being – it puts a pep in her step, you know, because she knows and understand that, at this stage in her career, she’s expected to be one.

In the Diablo Cody-written horror-com Jennifer’s Body Fox arguably has found the perfect vehicle to showcase this image.

What shame it is, then, that the movie is so uneven.

Part horror movie, part comedy, Jennifer’s Body left quite a bit to be desired. Cody spoiled us with her hyper-aware and hyper-clever Academy Award-winning script for Juno, so I thought it was hyper-disappointing that this, her follow-up directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Aeon Flux), wasn’t more quip-happy.

Don’t get me wrong – the movie has its quotes, but they don’t get as pile-high as the body count (which is not that high, either). Also, I thought that, tonally, the movie kinda sorta missed the mark a little bit.

Sidebar: The limited audience with whom I saw Jennifer’s Body earlier this week was a bit of a wet blanket. It made me wonder whether this is a movie that needs to be seen in a more rapturous, fuller theater, or if the crowd simply reflected the low energy on screen.

I thought the movie had its spooks and thrills, most of which were old school (like, a door bell rings – or was it a knock? – and our heroine goes to check…but there’s no one there), and that it was funny, bitingly so at times, but the pace was just draggy.

Jennifer’s Body is a movie made with a softer touch.

It has a female director, a female writer, and Fox’s counterpart is played by Amanda Seyfried (HBO’s Big Love, Mamma Mia!). I cannot help but wonder if years of watching movie in the genre made by men has – oh? – programmed me to expect, say, more in-your-face titillation.

Subtlety, or as much as possible, rules this production, and that’s a welcome change of pace.

So perhaps you will enjoy more thoroughly the story of Fox’s titular character, an alpha female in the small town of Devil’s Kettle, who, after a fateful encounter with a small-time emo band that leaves her possessed by a demon, is propelled to graduate from high school evil to evil evil – and hungry for boys.

Only her BFF, the unfortunately nicknamed Needy (Seyfried), sees Jennifer for what she’s become – and only she can stop her from ravaging through the town’s testosterone-prone.

I – I already saw Jennifer’s Body, and while I would love to check it out again, with an audience that’s more alive and that would distract from Fox’s aggroying Paris Hilton voice affectation, I think I’ll pass. It’s a recession, after all.

My Rating **1/2

Photo: 20th Century Fox.