Because I Said So (12A)

Review by Carol Allen

This is a cross genre mixture of family and romantic comedy. Keaton plays Daphne, a single mother who has raised three daughters on her own. While the elder two are now happily married, Daphne is seriously worried that the youngest Milly (Moore) is demonstrating the same talent that she had herself, when she married the girls' long disappeared father, for making lousy choices in men. So with the best of intentions she decides to get Milly a suitable suitor via the internet – without of course telling her daughter what she's up to. As a result of her ad and the amusingly "Lady Bracknell" style vetting interviews she conducts, she matches Milly up with well-mannered, well-paid, albeit slightly stuffy, architect Jason (Tom Everett Scott), the ideal candidate from a mother's point of view. But fate has provided Milly with another suitor, cute and free-spirited musician and single father Johnny (Macht). And to add spice to the stew, Johnny's dad Joe (Stephen Collins) is also on the marriage market and he and Daphne take a fancy to each other.

The film is sweet, romantic, funny and entertaining with some good sitcom type jokes, including the classic generational turnaround, when Milly comes home and finds her mother and Joe snogging on the sofa. Some of the humour though seems to be trying too hard, as in a recurring gag, where Daphne accidentally logs onto a porn site and cannot find out how to close it down. Director Lehmann also appears to be a little over fond of the montage technique to cover a lot of ground quickly.

Keaton is likeable with her character's good intentions and the care she has for her daughters, though her interfering nature is both a bit irritating and somewhat alarming. She also looks good, demonstrating some useful fashion tips for the older woman – shirtwaisters with wide belts appear to be in this year! Moore has a plump, puppyish charm as Milly, and Graham as her elder, therapist sister gives the family some stability and common-sense. Piper Perabo as the third sister doesn't have a lot to do and the fellas in waiting do their respective bits nicely.

While it's good to see a film in which the women are centre stage, there is though something uncomfortable about its underlying assumption that a woman on her own is an unhappy woman and that there's nothing worse than being a woman without a man. Near the beginning of the film, after Milly's latest romantic disaster, she observes that her mother’s been without a partner for most of her life and has had a successful life, which she Milly will now emulate. We then spend the rest of the movie being told that this is not so. The reason why Mum is interfering is because she’s lonely and unhappy and what she needs is a man and an orgasm! Bit of an old-fashioned message really for today's young woman.