Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Megan Fox Rules!.I won't be seeing Jennifer's Body this weekend, because really, who else do you go see a high-school-succubus movie with but your best friend from high school? Even if that means you have to wait a week for said best friend to get on down for a visit. But I'm still reading reviews and roundups. And whether it's Alexandra Gutierrez saying the movie is less-than-feminis or Vulture tracking the critical backlash against Diablo Cody's puzzling use of off-putting slang in the introductory section of her work, the question I'm interested in is whether Megan Fox can act. In other words, am I going to have to take a deep breath and learn to respect the girl, who is dreadful in Transformers and keeps herself in the tabloids with an increasingly risible-bordering-on-the-offensive outrageous comments?
Lindsay at Jezebel says yes. And A.O. Scott says "her blunt, blank affect belongs to the character, not the performer, and is part of the film’s calculated tease." No matter what the answer is, I suspect I'm going to be dissatisfied. If Fox turns out to be a secret dynamo, I'll be disappointed that she's wasting her talent on trash, and concerned that she's limiting her options by trashing Michael Bay, who, sexist perfectionist of junk that he may be, is pretty much responsible for her fame. And if she's dreadful, I'll be vexed by the fact that we're going to be stuck with her for a while, at least until her looks are either so familiar that audiences are bored with them, or begin to fade.