Movie Review: Because I Said So

As it goes, there are good date movies and then there are bad ones. Most of the time, they're all just "okay and sincere". Some of them really don't resonate with any of us. Just a reason to go to the movies and feel good with our girlfriends/boyfriends, mothers, sisters or whoever goes with us. In the last decade or so, even romantic comedies have become horribly formulaic. You know what I mean, we clearly get a movie set-up and plot that can be seen from frames away, even before the first site gag is thrown. Then you have your few stand out entries, who do their best to stand out from the muck. Unfortunately, Because I Said So... didn't cut it.

I personally blame the commercials. They completely mislead you nowadays. When you watch Because I Said So, you soon began to realize that the commercial is not this movie. In fact, the commercials were better. Honestly, this movie was tacky and terminally bland.

Here's the rundown, longtime single mother Daphne (Diane Keaton) is determined to marry off her three daughters, hoping they will avoid her own loneliness. The opening scenes show her ostensible success with Maggie (Lauren Graham) and Mae (Piper Perabo), as they appear with cakes, white dresses, and grooms. But she’s not done yet. Her youngest girl, poor Milly (Mandy Moore), can’t find the right guy. So mom is fixated on making that happen.

Thus begins the set up of one basic joke - the interfering mother and then it runs right into the ground. There was so much wrong with this movie, I can't even begin to note them all. One thing I hated was the poor characterization. The whole movie is designed around Diane Keaton's character's meddling as excessive and of course is the set up for a big showdown towards the end. Blah! Most of the other characters are all pretty much cookie cut outs of souless supporting stars. I can't even go into the whole dynamically wrong attitude this movie took, but I do have to say - I love Diane Keaton. I loved The Family Stone, but she's beginning to play the same person in every movie. This is even going back to As Good As It Gets. We get the slightly naive, older woman, who's clumsy and full of life and vibrancy, who has this full rich life, but is dealing with an issue she hasn't had to in quite some time. That's really Diane Keaton, not the characters she's playing. It's heartbreaking to see her Ann Taylor Loft-like performances right down to the huge belts, horrendous pleated skirts and enormous accessories that only Keaton can pull off.

Because I Said So includes so many clichés that it’s hard to keep count. In lieu of plot, it’s cluttered with bad scenes after another. Some are funny, which would include a wacky driving scene, stupid dog reaction shots (which even at one point was too much) and falling-splat-with-cakes scenes. Frankly, this movie is so self-defeating, I can't even write anymore. It's trife people. Go rent Failure To Launch or my all time favorite The Sweetest Thing. Those would satisfy you more than this one.