Never cross a superheroine

My Super Ex - Girlfriend

Directed by Ivan Reitman
Certificate 12A

IVAN Reitman has a mixed track record. He teetered on the brink of brilliance with Ghostbusters, got there with Animal House, and did rom-com well with the Robert Redford and Daryl Hannah vehicle Legal Eagles. But more recently, his has been utterly lightweight fare in the guise of Evolution, a nonsensical film whose saving grace was that the casting of X-Files hero David Duchovny to take the rise out of his own career as alien hunter by taking the lead role.
Reitman is fortunate in his latest flick to have been blessed with two strong leads. Uma Thurman (pictured) is great, with Luke Wilson scampering along not far behind.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is essentially silly.: It’s good idea which does not develop as much as you hope but still has some gags that make this lightweight summer comedy bearable.
Thurman has landed more action roles since her sword-swinging performances in both Kill Bills, and as G-Girl, the superhero who finds crime fighting is a great day job but doesn’t take away the need for some one to cuddle up to late at night, she becomes every teenage boy’s dream.
Thurman is Jenny Johnson, a single New York exhibition organiser, who in her civvies is a bag of nerves. The sort of annoying singleton that would make a guest appearance in Friends or Sex in The City as a butt of the more sophisticated characters jokes.
Oh, but little do we know. When she falls for Matt she has a rather large secret to reveal.
While Jenny is a perfect mug, as her alter-ego G-Girl, she saves the world while looking super. And the premise allows for girl/boy jokes about superhuman strength when the pair decide to spend the night together.
But this super hero is high maintenance, and when Matt decides to end their relationship she uses all her powers to make Matt’s world a prickly place to be, prompting some bizarre scenes of wacky tomfoolery in classic Reitman style.
It is a mis-matched battle of the sexes but overall laid back enough to work. Eddie Izzard pops up too as G-Girl’s nemesis, but has little to do, which is a shame. What a super girl he would have made.