Because I Said So: Critic Reviews

An unbelievable mess.

Because I Said So is an exercise in deliberate mediocrity, with chuckles and heartwarming moments distributed as carefully as nuts in a factory-made brownie.

There's a special circle of hell reserved for whoever thought up the moment where Macht tells Moore she smells like "cake batter".

It's so derivative, unfunny and thuddingly bad that it's one of the more cringe-inducing movies of a genre chock-full of clunkers.

What the filmmakers try to play for laughs isn't funny, it's creepy.

Because I Said So exasperates because even its best intentions are phony.

As a member of their generation, and one who considered them among the best actresses of Hollywood's most probing era, I am both cheered and alarmed by the recent spectacles Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton have made of themselves.

As almost everyone knows by now, the early part of the year has become a dumping ground for dreadful movies. Still, Because I Said So constitutes unusually toxic waste.

My motherly advice is: Skip it.

I am about to issue a declaration that amounts to blasphemy among many film critics, fashionistas and women of a certain age: I am so over Diane Keaton.

Keaton is almost unwatchable in embarrassing scenes that involve an over-the-top car chase and a computer with a mind of its own.

The whole movie feels pushy.

Throughout most of her career Diane Keaton has shown sound instincts, so it's a mystery why she failed to sniff this false, brittle comedy out as a waste of her gifts.

Keaton is a national treasure, always worth the visit even when, as is the case of Because I Said So, her movie isn't.

The best moments aren't belly laughs (there are a couple of those, too) but the jokes that ring uncomfortably true.

There are lots of cakes involved in the film, and each time one shows up you know it's likely to be thrown, fallen on, dropped or pressed into someone's face.

Because I Said So is a movie about people we don't like doing things no one would ever do.

The entire project seems like a diabolical conspiracy to destroy one of the few icons we've got left, but luckily that's where it fails most of all.

An exercise in canned cuteness.

Call it a hunch, but I don't think you're going to see a clip from the appalling romantic comedy Because I Said So at this spring's Diane Keaton tribute at Lincoln Center.

There's a charming bonhomie among the sisters, and there are cute touches to the romances.

Diane Keaton has a lot to answer for in her willingness to portray Hollywood's idea of middle-aged womanhood.

The result is a 105-minute cringe-a-thon that reduces the Katharine Hepburn of her generation to a sitcom harpy presiding over a brood of Valley Girl chicks.

If these are the only kinds of roles we can conceive for actresses who have grown into their faces, as Keaton has, it's no wonder so many younger performers are seeking the knife.

The screenplay for Because I Said So may be short on invention but it is large on heart.