TV trailers for Because I Said So misleadingly focus on Diane Keaton’s character, suggesting the film is primarily about an older woman rediscovering her zest for life.

      It is that, but only barely. Far more significant to the film’s development is the hackneyed romantic plot of a woman (Mandy Moore) having to choose between two lovers, and the related theme of the woman’s mother (Keaton) meddling in her life.

      Clearly, Because is being marketed to the older demographic, those of an age to remember Keaton’s salad days as Woody Allen’s favorite leading lady.  I fell in love with her in Annie Hall (for which she won an Oscar) and ever since I’ve looked forward to her movies with great anticipation.

      Unfortunately, Daphne Wilder, her character in Because, is arguably the most unlikable role she has ever played.  Through four-fifths of the movie, she is so intrusive into her daughter’s life that we are fed up with her long before she turns it around with a new start in life. 

      This is not to say this is a bad film.  It’s a passable romantic comedy, a decent date movie during Valentine month, but it doesn’t rise above all the other romantic comedies that have preceded it through the years.

      Keaton is still an attractive woman, with an age-appropriate beauty that is a living refutation of all the Hollywood actresses who turn to facelifts and Botox to try to appear young, and her character is as laden with psychological baggage as Annie Hall or any of the other neurotic women she played for Allen.

      It’s appropriate, then, that her oldest daughter (Lauren Graham) is a psychologist.  Graham and Piper Perabo as the middle daughter function primarily as an occasional Greek chorus to comment on their mother’s unhealthy relationship with Milly (Moore), the youngest and only unmarried daughter.

      The film carefully establishes parallels between mother and daughter, twice offering collages of the two women doing identical things at the same time. Both are outstanding bakers, and indeed, the film makes a strong connection between food and love – watch what happens when Milly makes chocolate soufflés for her two lovers, and you’ll know which one is right for her. 

      Mother and daughters are in almost constant contact with each other via cell-phones, which prove an invaluable tool for match-making and match-sabotaging.

      Enter the two men: Jason (Tom Everett Scott), a hunky architect with a control fetish whom Daphne finds for Milly through an on-line dating service, and Johnny (Gabriel Macht), a quirky guitarist who seeks Milly out despite her mother’s interference. 

      Jason lives alone in an enormous modern apartment, Johnny with his father (Stephen Collins) and son (seven-year-old Ty Panitz) in a funky bungalow next to a canal.   Nothing is out of place in Jason’s home, and nothing is in place in Johnny’s chaotic domicile.

      It’s immediately obvious to the viewer which man is a better match for Milly, especially for those who’ve seen the trailer and thus know where Daphne and Collins’ character will end up.  Apparently, it’s obvious to Milly, too.  Whenever she’s with easygoing Johnny, she smiles and relaxes; with judgmental Jason, she is eternally on edge.  Why, then, does she keep both of them on the string for so long?

      Two reasons – Mom’s interference, and the conventions of the 18^th-century comedy of manners.  Indeed, except for the more explicit sexuality and the integral role of modern technology, this story wouldn’t feel out of place in the company of those earlier plays, in which the right pairings are almost always evident from the beginning, and the suspense comes from overcoming the obstacles to happily-ever-after.         

        This review appeared in the Aberdeen American News on February 4, 2007.

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This page last updated on February 11, 2007.