My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)

Released in the summer of 2006, My Super Ex-Girlfriend arrives with the confidence of a studio comedy and the shelf life of a forgotten sitcom. Ivan Reitman directs Uma Thurman as Jenny Johnson, a reluctant superheroine whose romantic neediness curdles into full-scale revenge once Luke Wilson's architect ends the relationship. The premise is a Fatal Attraction spoof with a cape, and the film never quite decides whether it is satirizing the genre or simply borrowing its furniture. The jokes land sporadically. The tone does not.

As a document of social consciousness, the film is nearly inert. Wanda Sykes appears in support, and the ensemble is pleasant enough, but the casting reflects the ordinary habits of 2006 rather than any stated commitment to representation. There is no engagement with race, no environmental concern, no critique of the corporate world Matt inhabits, no body politics, no LGBTQ presence. The film does not lecture. It has nothing to say.

The one place where the film invites scrutiny is its central woman. A female superhero should be a gift, and Thurman plays her with real comic timing, but the script saddles her with the jealous, needy, stalker template that critics at the time flagged as sexist. It is a cautionary portrait of a woman with power, not a celebration of one. The result is a comedy that mistakes a tired gender cliché for a punchline. We are left with a modest box-office performer, a mixed critical reception, and the faint sense that everyone involved deserved better material.