TIFF Day 1: Jennifer’s Body

September 10, 2009 by Liam
Filed under: Movie News

Jennifer's Body at TIFF

Just got out of a screening of Jennifer’s Body at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. I don’t have time to do a full blown review right now (quickly on my way to a screening of The Informant) but I wanted to give a quick update.

The movie stars Megan Fox as Jennifer and Amanda Seyfried as her best friend Needy (short for Anita). The two head out to a “club” one night to check out the band Low Shoulder (with lead singer Adam Brody) but things quickly deteriorate from there when Jennifer is abducted by the band who believes she’s a virgin. (Ha!) Jennifer shows up a few hours later and something is different. Soon, boys in their small little town of Devil’s Kettle begin showing up dead.

For what it was, the movie was pretty good. I thought we’d really get a look at just how talented Megan Fox is, since this is her first starring role, but the movie didn’t really showcase much. She was fine, for what the movie demanded, but let’s not kid ourselves. This movie isn’t going to win any Oscars. Amanda Seyfried, on the other hand, really stood out for me. I’d seen her before in Mamma Mia!, but this movie was a real departure and she held her own against Fox. (Although you’d probably have to to more than just give her glasses and frumpy hair to convince me that she’s not worthy of being in the same league as Fox.) It’s a horror movie set in a high school with a couple of beautiful girls in the lead roles, so you pretty much get what you expect. There were a couple of gory parts, but it’s all in good fun. I found the movie dragged a bit in the latter part, but it wrapped up nicely and ended differently from what I expected. Overall, a fun afternoon at the movies.

A couple of things to watch out for. Writer Diablo Cody makes the briefest of brief cameos in the early going and J.K. Simmons had me “hooked” as one of the high school teachers. Also, don’t go into this movie expecting to see Jennifer’s “body”. Otherwise you’ll come away disappointed.

I’ll be back later today with my thoughts on The Informant and some photos from a couple of red carpets.