Jawbreaker (1999)

Rose McGowan vamps it up mercilessly as the "Satan in heels," a teenage-bitch queen whose birthday prank gone terminally wrong leaves her best friend dead, choked to death on a jawbreaker the size of a fist. Rebecca Gayheart, with her sparkling eyes and a smile that could melt an iceberg, is the good girl at heart who becomes a social pariah when she drops out of the group, trading her plunging necklines for librarian-lite sweaters and long skirts. Jawbreaker wants nothing less than to be the Heathers of its generation, but only intermittently hits the mark, such as when McGowan turns a mousy nobody into the next big thing, a slutty tease whose craving for attention soon challenges McGowan's supremacy. "She's evil," someone finally realizes, "and she's only in high school!" That's unfortunately the best Darren Stein's film gets. For all its catty talk and surface glamour, it's a flat, broadly directed satire that never lives up to its evocative title. Features an appearance by teen rock punks the Donnas as the prom band. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

great movie

this is a funny and interesting portrayal of gender roles in teenage society. Very insightful and entertaining! December 22, 2008

This movie will break more than just your jaw...

I think that the idea behind `Jawbreaker', no matter how disturbing, is somewhat smart as well. I really would have liked to see better actresses placed in the film. I can only imagine how hilarious this movie might have been if say, it starred Denise Richards and Kirsten Dunst (so brilliant together in `Drop Dead Gorgeous'). Instead, we get Rose McGowan who, lets face it, is little more than a pretty face (and here her face isn't all that pretty).

The film revolves around a prank gone awry. Popular girl Courtney and her friends Julie and Marcia kidnap their best friend Elizabeth on her seventeenth birthday, shove a jawbreaker in her mouth, tape it shut and toss her in the trunk. It's a harmless prank. They're going to stuff her face with pancakes and pretty much make her miserable to commemorate her birthday. But that harmless prank turns deadly when that jawbreaker wares down and gets lodged in Liz's throat, and she dies in Courtney's trunk. The girls panic and Julie wants to tell the police but Courtney is determined not to go to jail for playing a prank so she convinces the girls to help her make it look like Liz was murdered by a strange man. When the school outcast Fern walks in on the girls Courtney decides to offer her Liz's place in their group if she'll keep her mouth shut.

The initial idea (of the whole jawbreaker murder) is quite original. The route they went was not so much (let's make the nerd popular as long as it benefits the group). What really kills the film though is McGowan's ridiculous acting; in fact everyone's performances are downright eye-gouging. The only one who almost scathes by is Rebecca (can't type her last name or my review will get banned); almost.

Rose McGowan isn't comfortable with her character, which is odd, and so she tends to appear like someone trying to be cool and popular instead of someone who is cool and popular. She appears like a wannabe and thus makes her characters `power over others' come off as fake and preposterous. Julie Benz does nothing more than follow McGowan around like a lapdog, and Judy Greer handles her characters transformation with little more than a passing attempt. The film has really no use for men so the performances (and cameos) of actors like Ethan Erickson, Chad Christ and even Marilyn Manson are all borderline ridiculous. Rebecca is the most talented in the bunch and she manages to deliver some sort of saving grace to the film with her conflicted heroine, but even she can't save the film from the evil clutches of McGowan and company.

Like I said, the film also takes a very clichéd approach to the subject matter, an approach that is better left to a Freddie Prince Jr. movie (does he even act anymore), but the fill would have still been watchable had a more convincing villain (I'm telling you, Denise Richards) been cast. September 24, 2008

Horrifyingly hilarious!

Jawbreaker is a film about teen angst, popularity, deception and manipulation. It is utterly horrifying in that it portrays the desperation of the popular to stay popular and the need of the outcasts to enter their fashionable ranks. But is their delicious perfection all that it seems? How far are they willing to go to stay on top? And what happens when one of those so-called outcasts has to be grudgingly groomed to become one of them -- because she knows that they are covering up the (accidental) murder of a friend?

Jawbreaker is a joyride of a bitchy, biting comedy that will strike a note with everyone who ever attended high school -- no matter what group you found yourself in!

Don't miss Jawbreaker! I'ts an absolute delight! September 23, 2008

Best for your "Guilty Pleasures" list!

I have to agree with most, it definitely isn't your intellectual, "change the world", Oscar-worthy film but who cares? It's just sheer fun! Total guilty pleasure! Since the first time I've seen this movie, I never miss the chance to see it whenever it passes on cable.
It saddens me that other reviewers failed to mention Jeff Conaway and PJ Soles appearance(even if PJ's is very small, still worth mentioning though!) Bottom line: Hilarious! LOVE this movie. January 30, 2008

Bad girls

I did enjoy this movie, was fun to see the girls going way too far with a joke and then what they did trying to cover it, has sexy pretty girls,good looking guys and 'yes' a prom night. December 10, 2007

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