"Power perceived is power achieved" is the motto employed by the protagonists of Jawbreaker, 1999 black comedy written and directed by Darren Stein. Courtney Shayne (played by Rose MacGowan), Julie Freeman (played by Rebecca Gayheart), Marcie Fox (played by Julie Benz) and Liz Purr (played by Charlotte Ayanna) form the clique that rules over Reagan High School with the combination of sex appeal and utter disdain for all those below their social standing. Girls decide to celebrate Liz's 17th birthday by staging mock kidnapping. The prank goes terribly wrong when Liz gets accidentally choked. Courtney decides to cover everything up by staging Liz's death to look like product of perverse sex. The only problem is in Fern Mayo (played by Judy Greer), quiet, naive and nerdish girl who accidentally overheard girls conspiring. Courtney buys her silence by having her made over and adopted into their clique. Fern is thoroughly corrupted by her new status while Julie slowly develops the conscience, especially when the Liz's death gets pinned on an innocent man. In the meantime, police detective Vera Cruz (played by Pam Grier) is investigating the accident.
The plot of Stein's film looks like a clever attempt of a subversive social commentary and satire being masked as a teen comedy. What audience sees is actually quite the opposite – formulaic and exploitative teen comedy being masked as a social commentary and satire. Reason for that is in incredibly uninspired script that recycles 1980s teen comedy cliches and mixes them with those of 1990s youth-oriented films. The cast, chosen more on the basis on looks than talent, can't be of much use, and same can be said of Pam Grier, whose iconic presence is wasted in useless police investigation subplot. Stein's direction is often too irritating, but the worst thing is in the details of Courtney's cover up which display unenviable level of intelligence. In doing so, Stein probably tries to make Jawbreaker fit this film's presumed teen audience, but teenagers, as well as the rest of the audience, really don't need to be insulted in such manner.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on October 11th 2004)
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