Fresh and Exciting

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The acting in this movie is really good.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

So today, this little movie was playing on HBO, and since I have never seen it, I was like: "Huh, let's check this out." I regretted watching this. Not only did the cheesy and awful writing made me gag, but so did the actions of the characters. For an example, Milly.. who thought dating TWO guys at once was acceptable and can never stand up against her mother. But she wasn't the worst, oh nooo.The mother. Is. Psychotic and immature. Whenever she showed up on screen, trying to butt in her daughter's life, I yell: "Goooooo away, you stalker!" The title of this movie should have be named: Psycho mother said so.

All the rotten critics about DIane Keaton in this film are absolutely right. And in fact it is because of that, she is succeeding to play the part which is what is expecting of her : a horrible obnoxious mother, which gets on the nerves of her daughters and therefore on the spectators. In fact each time they are scenes were she is not present the film is getting enjoyable. To make it simple, the spectator are feeling exactly what the fictional daughters of her are feeling with their fictional pushy mother. (((((In a way, her role in the film represents exactly the effect she has in most of the movies where she is acting : she is bearable or enjoyable or excellent as long she is not too often present: otherwise the spectator feels rapidly like an overdose of her. There other actors like her who are having the same effect (i'm not giving names..), and it is always a surprise to me that they director or casting responsible don't realize that they should pay the audience to watch and not the other way around)))). To come back to "Because i say so", the annoying Keaton's acting makes the film is worthwhile/interesting because it is, in fine, what the story is about.

You will love the mother and the baking that goes on. The girls are lovely. My favorite part of the movie is when the girl is in Johnny's place and the bowl breaks. He says it's just an off day, there will be other better days. I love how the movie ends and I think there is value in seeing how the two men differ and who she chooses in the end.The mother has her own issues that get ironed out during the film. There is also a boy in the picture with one of the men making it a harder choice for her. And the other guy Has money. I like how tight the family is and how she finally chooses the right guy. You will feel good at the end.

There is a school of film reviewing which suggests that every film should have a mission, a purpose, even if that purpose is known only to the director. This film however suggests that it is indeed possible for even the director not to know what kind of film he is making. Going into this charade, Michael Lehmann had a weak (VERY WEAK) script, but some of the best talent in the biz to compensate with. Dianne Keaton, love her or hate her, has gotten tremendous mileage out of her single breakout role (annie hall) and can at least be relied upon to hold up her character when all around her are drowning. Not here. Playing the Mother From Hell, most viewers, both male and female, would, 45 mins into the story, be more inclined to drop her from the nearest helicopter rather than put up with one more moment of her bullying. The object of her bullying, Mandy Moore, looks equally lost. This film is as far from her artistry in WALK TO REMEMBER as the North Pole is from the South, and if you break it down scene by scene you will find she is having trouble with the dialogue, and actually mugging for the camera (not intentionally) while the aforesaid director does nothing to restrain her. One has to wonder if this film damaged her career path? The IMDb rating is not only justified, it is a tad high. There is nothing entertaining about this film except maybe Lauren Graham who seems genetically happy no matter what production she pops up in. Ugh.