Because I Said So Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)February 1st, 2007
BECAUSE I SAID SO
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
In the über-chick flick BECAUSE I SAID SO, Diane Keaton gives a manic, slapstick performance that alternates between being merely bad and being embarrassingly bad. Her work had an unbearable finger-across-the-blackboard effect on me.
As Daphne, a mother of three grown daughters, Keaton keeps reminding us that her character is by far the most immature. And the movie keeps reminding us that it is a comedy that expects lots of guffaws from the audience. To make sure that we provide the film a non-stop laugh track, the cliché-ridden script throws in every old physical comedy joke it can think of. Cell phones ring, making everyone think it's theirs. We have a humping dog, a cake in the face, burning food in the oven and women arguing over who has had the most orgasms. When things are original, they aren't any better. I don't think I've ever seen a woman kick her car's navigation unit while driving or seen a mother and her daughters comparing their panties. But none of it ever felt the least bit genuine.
Mandy Moore, Lauren Graham and Piper Perabo play Milly, Maggie and Mae, Daphne's three twenty-something daughters. The setup for the plot is that, in order to marry off Milly, her only unwed daughter, Daphne turns to an internet dating site to make the arrangements. In legalese much like the long and baffling agreements that software users are required to sign before using a product, Daphne explains all the caveats when it comes to someone suitable for dating her offspring.
Eventually Daphne decides that rich architect Jason (Tom Everett Scott) is just the man for Milly, but Johnny (Gabriel Macht), a musician who happened to overhear the plan, throws his hat into the ring as well. Of course, the incredibly handsome Johnny hasn't had a date in a long time. And, just as certainly, Milly will eventually turn to Johnny after a long simultaneous fling with both men. Ugh.
The only unresolved issue is whether Daphne, a widow with a sexual secret will find true love too. Her secret -- now, don't tell anyone -- is that she's never had an orgasm and doesn't even have any idea what one might be like. As Daphne sticks her high heels straight up in the air while having sex in the last scene, we know that she must happy and sexually satisfied. The movie, however, provided me with no satisfaction whatsoever. Maybe with a script rewrite and the lead recast, the movie might have been salvageable -- the operative word being "might."
BECAUSE I SAID SO runs 1:41. It is rated PG-13 for "sexual content including dialogue, some mature thematic material and partial nudity" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, February 2, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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