This Sunday the NFL will hold its forty-first Super Bowl. For many individuals around the country this leads to a weekend-long celebration. It also, annually, causes at least one Hollywood studio to release a romantic comedy, or what many people would term a “chick flick.”
This year, the honor of releasing said comedy goes to Universal, with its new Diane Keaton/Mandy Moore film, Because I Said So. Directed by Michael Lehmann (whom I like to think of as the man behind the grossly underrated Hudson Hawk), with a script by Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson, the film follows the women of the Wilder family, mainly the mother, Daphne (Keaton), and youngest daughter, Milly (Moore).
Daphne worries that she sees a little too much of herself in Milly — a lone woman making bad romantic choices and headed down the path to spinsterhood. So, being the overprotective, overbearing mom that she is, she opts to step in and put things right. She places a personal ad for her daughter on an online service and starts interviewing men.
After the standard montage of incredible losers, she chooses the “perfect” guy, Jason (Tom Everett Scott), whom the audience instantly recognizes as a little too perfect; it is clear from the outset that the relationship will not work out. And, in case the audience doesn’t pick up on that fact, the guitar player at the restaurant Daphne is at, Johnny (Gabriel Macht), is quick to inform Daphne and everyone else. It is also immediately clear that, despite her protestations and arguments, it is Johnny that is the perfect guy for Milly.
Milly, blissfully unaware of her mother’s actions, ends up meeting both men and starts dating both. Daphne, upset that Johnny is still in the picture, continues to push hard for Jason (making it more clear than ever that he is the wrong man). Meanwhile, Johnny’s father, Joe (Stephen Collins), comes over to Milly’s because he’s locked himself out of his apartment (with Johnny’s son, Lionel). As fate would have it, Daphne, sick, is staying with Milly. The two, instantly recognize a mutual attraction and are found, in short order, by Johnny and Milly making out on Milly’s sofa (with Lionel fast asleep next to them). Of course, things take a turn for the worse in Milly’s relationships with Johnny, Jason, and Daphne, but being a romantic comedy it all works out (somehow) in the end.
Article comments
1 - Steve C.
Hudson Hawk schmudsonhawk. Michael Lehmann's legacy will always rest with Heathers.
2 - Cara de Pescado
Oh the last singing bit was horribly synced up. I also felt they were out of place. I felt they were thrown in to make a few chances for Mandy Moore to be on the soundtrack feel motivated?
But other than the singing bits, I really liked the movie. Entirely predictable, but I think I'd be disappointed with a Romantic Comedy that isn't. It was cute and my goodness Daphne was just like my mom. I just waited for "Because I said so" to be interchanged with "I'm you're Mother, that's why."