Because I Said So

A meddling mother (Diane Keaton) tries to match her daughter (Mandy Moore) with the man of her choice, while scuttling a romance with the guy the daughter has met on her own. Keaton gets a tough row to hoe from director Michael Lehmann and writers Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson—they go out of their way to make her look ridiculous, pathetic and stupid, but she manages, despite them, to emerge with some dignity and charm intact. The movie is like one of the ugly cakes that Moore’s character bakes in her catering business: a disorderly, unappetizing rat’s-nest of treacly icing slathered over ill-fitting layers. The script hits one false note after another, resorting to having Keaton and her daughters screech like chickens when things aren’t funny enough—which only makes things even less funny.