Because I Said So

Single mom Daphne Wilder (Diane Keaton) has seen her two oldest daughters (Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo) married off to solid, stable men. Now she's trying to find a mate for her youngest, Milly (Mandy Moore), who's been unlucky in love. Daphne tries to engineer a romance between Milly and a handsome, up-and-coming architect (Tom Everett Scott), but the girl is also attracted to a middling successful musician (Gabriel Macht). A reasonably pleasant chick flick, Michael Lehmann's Because I Said So unfortunately suffers from a less-than-subtle performance by Keaton, whose aggressive, hyperkinetic Daphne grows fairly annoying before the film reaches the halfway point. What's more, while Keaton's character is depicted as a “progressive” parent, there's something a little unseemly about the frankness with which she and her daughters discuss sex (it's not offensive, but still throws the film off kilter somewhat). Erstwhile ‘tween queen Moore—who gets a chance to sing onscreen with Keaton—demonstrates yet again that she has real acting ability, and although the role doesn't demand all that much from her, she handles it with great aplomb. Of course, there's never much doubt whether her character will wind up with Macht's musician or Scott's architect. Optional. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include an eight-minute “making-of” featurette, “Designing a ‘Wilder' World” set and costume design featurette (6 min.), the music video for “World Spins Madly On” by the Weepies, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a so-so film.] (E. Hulse)