Diane Keaton may be one of the finest actresses of her generation, said Bruce Newman in the San Jose Mercury News. But Because I Said So is almost certainly the worst film she's ever starred in. Keaton, a pushy mother to lovelorn Mandy Moore, signs up her daughter for an online dating service and then micromanages the ensuing affairs. The usually appealing Keaton 'œhas been handed the most appallingly irritating character of her career and asked to make her funny.' Instead, she's rather scary, said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Keaton's meddlesome control freak seems egregiously out of place in what's supposed to be a romantic comedy. She delivers the relentless performance with hardly a wink, so 'œthere's never a moment of doubt, humility, or genuine shame' to let the audience enjoy the joke. The rest of Michael Lehmann's film is similarly tone-deaf, said Mary F. Pols in the Contra Costa, Calif., Times. 'œAccidental cake-in-the-face slapstick' sits side by side with shrill familial bickering and corny gags. 'œWhen a filmmaker relies on reaction shots from a dog for humor, you know something's missing.' It's the laughs.
Rating: PG-13
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