Because I Said So

Review by Clint Morris

Not witty enough not to be funny. Not romantic enough to get you gushing.

No, it’s not your father (though that would be anyone’s first guess), it’s actually the guts of the new Mandy Moore/Diane Keaton two-hander. A pic that wears its emotions on its sleeve, however it seems the sleeve’s so embossed in glop that the emotions are shrouded by fluff.

Directed by the erratic Michael Lehmann (Hudson Hawk, Heathers), Because I Said So is a thinly-written comedy for easy-to-pleasers about an interfering mother (Keaton) who’s determined to find a “life partner” for her youngest daughter (Moore). The meddlesome parent ends up (one of them, inadvertently) introducing two men to her beautiful kid. But which one will daughter choose? The rich and arrogant one or the kind-hearted single parent?

Sheesh. C’mon.

“Hi, I’m Diane Keaton -  and I’m an over-actor”.
“Thanks for sharing with us Diane”.
“Hi, I’m Mandy Moore and… well, Miss Keaton is just such a legend I should probably just follow her lead!”

And I’m guessing it was the veteran actresses presence in the new rom-com that had everyone else (Moore’s just the most impressionable) walking behind her like a child thats just been slapped for snatching a lolly from the supermarket checkout. Keaton is absolutely atrocious in this film – seemingly more interested in covering up her gobble (what is it with that complex of hers?) with anything she can wrap around her neck (watching her cover-up her neck with scarves in every scene is more amusing than the jokes in the film), than putting any effort into the film. If anything, she over-acts…. Resulting in one of the main feeble spots of the incontrovertibly average offering.

Mandy Moore, though beautiful and easy to watch, seems too keen to impress Keaton, resulting in a performance that’s just as artificial and annoying.

In fact, everyone in the film is damn annoying – Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo, Tom Everett Scott – seemingly determined to win the ‘who can shit the audience the most with their incessant waffle’ competition.

Granted, if the actors had a little more to work with than sloppy screenplay (I mean, how many times have we seen this!?) they might’ve been able to do something with their characters, but as it stands, they’ve treated the job like the end result – as a joke.

Not quite as bad as say, The Holiday (one of the worst romantic comedies in recent history), but definitely not a film worth wasting an afternoon on.

2 out of 5

Breach
Australian release: 3rd May, 2007
Cast: Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore, Gabriel Macht, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham
Director: Michael Lehmann
Website: Click here.