Because I Said So (D- or .5/4 stars)
I guess 'shrill' is supposed to be the new good. 'Because I Said So', a comedy directed by Michael Lehmann, tells the story of Daphne (Diane Keaton), a mom whose heart is in the right place, but brain is somewhere on Mars. Desperate to find a man for her youngest daughter, Milly (Mandy Moore), Daphne knows that Milly has some issues and just hopes that she won't follow in her lonely footsteps. Now, I like Diane Keaton. And I like Mandy Moore. But this movie is pure, unadulterated garbage.
Daphne is a proud (if not irritating, overbearing) mom of 3 lovely daughters: psychologist Maggie (a milquetoast Lauren Graham), middle child Mae (a listless Piper Perabo), and baker/caterer Milly, who can't seem to hold down one man, no matter how unbelievably attractive and seemingly sweet she is. Daphne is mildly bereft that she's approaching 60 and hasn't had a relationship since soon after Milly was born, so she's thrusting her anxieties on her baby girl, Milly. So that she doesn't make the same mistake(s), Daphne sets up Milly with 'the perfect man' (Tom Everett Scott). Coincidingly, Milly meets Johnny (Gabriel Macht) and begins 2 meaningful love affairs with both! Mandy Moore ... I'm appalled!
Will the girls be able to understand their mother? Can Daphne take a step back? Who cares? Cliched, predictable, over-the-top, confectionery, borderline slapstick, comic hysteria unfolds as Daphne continues to screw things up for her already troubled, Milly. She's doing all the wrong things for the right reasons, and while Milly realizes this, it's still difficult to ignore her mom when she's constantly hemming, hawing, calling her phone, showing up at her doorstep, squealing, & shrieking her way into her daughter's love life. As a mother-daughter film, this one would be bad. But add the 'romantic' schlock angle of the film, and it just becomes junk. I wanted to find a gun and shoot a tranquilizer in all of the wacky women in this film, starting with & then ending again with Diane Keaton.
There are some glaringly truthful moments in the acting by Keaton & Moore. 1 or 2 scenes made me think the film isn't a total waste. But the other 93% of the movie is so manufactured and miserable that I just don't care. Not since 2000's Eye of the Beholder have I seen a worse film. The script is an obvious travesty. But we're not even able to care about the protagonists fate, especially when it appears that they're all very well-off and Milly is decades from spinster level. I enjoy the occasional chick-flick. But 'Because I Said So' single-handedly knocks this already commonplace genre down another notch in the cinema medium.
Daphne is a proud (if not irritating, overbearing) mom of 3 lovely daughters: psychologist Maggie (a milquetoast Lauren Graham), middle child Mae (a listless Piper Perabo), and baker/caterer Milly, who can't seem to hold down one man, no matter how unbelievably attractive and seemingly sweet she is. Daphne is mildly bereft that she's approaching 60 and hasn't had a relationship since soon after Milly was born, so she's thrusting her anxieties on her baby girl, Milly. So that she doesn't make the same mistake(s), Daphne sets up Milly with 'the perfect man' (Tom Everett Scott). Coincidingly, Milly meets Johnny (Gabriel Macht) and begins 2 meaningful love affairs with both! Mandy Moore ... I'm appalled!
Will the girls be able to understand their mother? Can Daphne take a step back? Who cares? Cliched, predictable, over-the-top, confectionery, borderline slapstick, comic hysteria unfolds as Daphne continues to screw things up for her already troubled, Milly. She's doing all the wrong things for the right reasons, and while Milly realizes this, it's still difficult to ignore her mom when she's constantly hemming, hawing, calling her phone, showing up at her doorstep, squealing, & shrieking her way into her daughter's love life. As a mother-daughter film, this one would be bad. But add the 'romantic' schlock angle of the film, and it just becomes junk. I wanted to find a gun and shoot a tranquilizer in all of the wacky women in this film, starting with & then ending again with Diane Keaton.
There are some glaringly truthful moments in the acting by Keaton & Moore. 1 or 2 scenes made me think the film isn't a total waste. But the other 93% of the movie is so manufactured and miserable that I just don't care. Not since 2000's Eye of the Beholder have I seen a worse film. The script is an obvious travesty. But we're not even able to care about the protagonists fate, especially when it appears that they're all very well-off and Milly is decades from spinster level. I enjoy the occasional chick-flick. But 'Because I Said So' single-handedly knocks this already commonplace genre down another notch in the cinema medium.