Published: February 05, 2007 08:05 am      

Family relationships strained in ‘Because I Said So’

"Because I Said So" is the type of fluff that's good on a rainy day, or even a cold winter night. It has a tried-and-true formula that's prevalent in every other "chick flick" and requires no thought at all. If that's your thing, by all means head out and see this today. If not, don't bother reading any further.

The movie revolves around overbearing mother of three, Daphne (Diane Keaton) and her easy-on-the-eyes daughters Maggie (Lauren Graham), Mae (Piper Perabo) and Milly (Mandy Moore). Daphne has successfully married off the older two, but is having trouble with the baby, Milly.

Naturally such a nosy mother would serve as a burden; however, the trio adores their aging single mother and all of her faults.

Anxious to get Milly's love life rolling, Daphne takes it upon herself to take out a personal ad for Milly, and screen the potential boyfriend's herself. After secretly meeting a slew of losers, Daphne finally finds what she believes is the ideal man for Milly in Jason (Tom Everett Scott), a successful architect.

However, a new man, Johnny (Gabriel Macht), enters into the fray much to Daphne's disdain.

As Daphne sets up the plan for Jason and Milly to meet "accidentally," Milly discovers Johnny on her own and the two instantly hit it off. Soon Milly finds herself juggling two romances with her mother rooting for Jason. But before she knows it, Daphne soon finds a new love in the most unusual way, resulting in a dilemma for all those involved.

"Because I Said So" is mainly carried by Keaton and Moore, while the others merely play background to everything else. The duo emits a genuine love/hate relationship that mothers and daughters tend to display, and it's all believable. Moore is proving to be talented actor, after she successfully shed her teen pop persona and avoided all falls her former competition have succumb to. Keaton is naturally talented, however I wonder why she has lately, taken to flinging her arms and screaming through the majority of her films. "Because I Said So," however, does give the audience a break from it in a few scenes where she develops laryngitis. It would have also been nice to see more scenes featuring Graham and Perabo.

As stated earlier, "Because I Said So" isn't going to appeal to everyone. It does contain a few questionable scenes, but nothing that hasn't been done before. This is definitely a movie for the mother/daughter crowd.

"Because I Said So" is rated PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, some mature thematic material and partial nudity. Runtime is 102 minutes.