This movie could have been better. It drags and was slow, but was funny in spurts. It features Diane Keaton's daughter getting married and features mostly on her relationship with other daughter Mandy Moore and Moore's constant failure at romance. Some situations were funny, and the ensemble works well together, but the slow pace ruins it. I sort of liked it.** out of ****

This movie is horrific. It was so hard to watch that it literally gave me a headache and the dialogue made me cringe. Diane Keaton's character is annoying, I believe that's where my headache stemmed from. Aside from the horrific plot and stale character interaction, a few other things really bothered me about this movie. Like the way the psychologist treated her patient, actually the way they portrayed the neurotic person in general was quite offensive, making him seen more like a nuisance than an actual ill patient. If anyone's "psychologist" would treat them the way she treated that patient in the scene where her sister came to her office as an "emergency" (I hardly think family drama qualifies as a work emergency, especially if you're going to ignore and condescend your patients. ) it would not be a comical situation as they made it seem in this film. It would be completely unprofessional, and just plain sad. It would make me wonder why the hell this person became a psych to begin with. Another thing that really got me was the fact that she chose the sensitive, struggling musician with the ADHD ODD child instead of the Well established architect. Which is fine, if she wants all that baggage then she can knock herself out. But what, she couldn't possibly end up with the guy her mother set her up with right? The wanna be rock star should have just minded his business, but then again I guess the movie would have been an even worse cliché and wouldn't have the slightest indication of a "plot twist" (not that he added much anyway). This movie just plain sucks. Don't watch it. I have watched movies that people have said this about, and thought they weren't THAT bad. But this Is quite possibly the worst movie of all time.

The title of my post sums it up really. This film is about a mother and her three daughters who talk in whiny voices and use tears to try and justify their behaviour and manipulate each other. The mother also lies to her daughters and sneaks around behind their backs to fulfil her own agendas.Keaton's character reminded me of my mother who would try and guilt trip us about everything to control us and make us have no life so she wouldn't be alone. My sister bought the tears and 'loving' words such as "You can't leave home after everything I've done for you", "I am your mother and I love you very much, this is why I don't want you to be hurt", "You can't leave home because there are men waiting to rape you". Yeah really loving mother who was out for herself and didn't want us to choose our own lives and live them.I was so angry while watching this film and was just waiting for Mandy Moore's character to do what she wanted- then she just ended up doing what her mother wanted anyway. The DVD would be a good door stop though, except door stops are cheaper.If you don't like watching films about women guilt tripping each other and no comedy (even though they are labelled as such to manipulate you into watching), stay away from this glorified door stop at the video store.

In the movie, "Because I Said So", Diane Keaton plays a mother, Daphne Wilder, whose unconditional love has no boundaries when it comes to her daughter's love life. Daphne Wilder's three daughters are Maggie (Lauren Graham), who is the oldest, well established and responsible one; Mae (Piper Perabo) who is the carefree one; and Millie (Mandy Moore) who is the single, bubbly one, that is unsuccessful when it comes to finding the right guy. This romantic and love tangled comedy takes place in San Diego California. Daphne Wilder, a single mother, has the best of intentions when it comes to the unconditional love she has for her daughters, but when it comes to the love life of her youngest daughter Millie, she abides by no boundaries to find her love. Daphne, being a single mother of three since her children were young, is in fear of Millie becoming the same person she has. Millie has had several failed love attempts in the past and after the most recent, decides she is okay with being single and wants to be just like her mother. In efforts to prevent Millie from being alone, Daphne decides to post a personal add to find the perfect match for her daughter. The twist to this, is not only does Millie not know about the secret ad her mother has sent out but also that her mother is orchestrating the men of her choice running into her daughter. Millie finds herself stuck between two seemingly perfect men, one, a successful architect named Jason who her mother chose and another, a gentle and down to earth musician named Johnny who made his own efforts to meet her. Millie's indecisiveness of which guy she should let go, is resolved when Johnny sees that Millie is in a relationship with Jason who she is not going to stop seeing. While at Jason's house, she learns that they only met because of the personal ad her mother posted on the Internet. Millie and Daphne's relationship hits a hard bottom as a result of this and love is the only thing that may or may not hold together their mother-daughter bond. With the help of burning chocolate soufflés she chooses the path that is right for her and overcomes the obstacle of who to love and how to forgive.The theme of polka dots was used to construe the ups and downs in relationship between Daphne and Millie Wilder. Daphne is wearing a polka dotted dress when she interviews Jason, who she chooses for her daughter. For Millie and Jason's first run in, Daphne buys Millie a red polka dot dress so he knows exactly who he's looking for. Millie also wears this polka dot dress to go on her first date with Johnny, the guy that Daphne's mother is rooting against. This represents the disagreements between Millie and her mother and what they feel is right for Millie. They also represent the happiness in their relationship, at the end of the film when the Wilder bunch is having a happy polka dot themed celebration. Food is used as a tie between Millie and Daphne Wilder and their intuition in life. There are several scenes in the movie where Millie and Daphne are cooking chocolate soufflés either to perfection or to a crisp. When Millie and Daphne are arguing on the phone about which guy Millie should let go of, Daphne burns and catches her soufflés on fire for the first time. When Millie is at Jason's house, she burns her soufflés first the first time ever. When Millie is cooking them for Johnny, she takes them out of the oven at their perfection. The soufflés seem take the role of intuition and emotion for both of Millie and Daphne in this movie.As much as the film is a cliché in its storyline of an over- loving mother, a daughter who is lost in her search for love, and the three daughters who are the best of friends, it is what drew my attention. These are the kind of story lines that attract the attention of viewers, because they end happily. This is personally one of my favorite movies; I love the fun music, the themes of polka dots and food and the closeness of the mother and daughter. I thought even though the film's events were predictable, I still think the storyline was fun and really had the audience involved in the emotions and relationship between the mother and daughter.