Because I Said SoMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Because I Said So."

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Avg. Critic Score: 26 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter | Sheri Linden

    Amongst the cardboard-cutout supporting characters, Lauren Graham brings a welcome deadpan sensibility to the overeager proceedings. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    A mild exercise in deliberate mediocrity, with chuckles and heartwarming moments distributed as carefully as nuts in a factory-made brownie. The movie's lack of ambition is hardly surprising, but both Ms. Moore and Ms. Keaton, who can wring flustered comedy out of the mildest provocation, deserve better. Read full review

  • 40
    Variety | Dennis Harvey

    An exercise in canned cuteness, Because I Said So pushes its normally appealing stars, Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore, over the edge of sitcom hysteria. Read full review

  • 33
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    This slapdash, charmless, baldly boomer-chasing romantic comedy, directed by Michael Lehmann (Heathers) from a clunky, orgasm-obsessed script by Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson, is the lazy studio's answer to a call for more age-appropriate entertainment for "More" magazine readers. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    What the filmmakers try to play for laughs -- a mom and her daughters chatting about orgasms while shoe shopping -- isn't funny, it's creepy. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    It's a dreadful exercise, tin-eared and sincere, bereft of any truth or inspiration. Read full review

  • 25
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    It's so derivative, unfunny and thuddingly bad that it's one of the more cringe-inducing movies of a genre chock-full of clunkers. Read full review

  • 25
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    A sloppily made bowl of reheated chick-flick cliches. Read full review

  • 20
    Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano

    Not so much phoned in as it is auto-dialed with a text-to-speech prerecorded message in one of those creepy robotic voices. Read full review

  • 0
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    This film bespeaks a truly startling mistrust of the movie audience, and, what's more, a disrespect for the feature film medium. Yes, of course it was conceived as an unpretentious entertainment pitched mainly to girls and young women. Yet that doesn't explain the nightmarish quality of the finished product. Read full review

View more reviews for Because I Said So on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Keaton and Moore can't save bland, cliched romcom.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that kids under 14 (even big Mandy Moore fans) probably won't be interested in this flat, unoriginal romantic comedy. The film's humor is based on a very tired stereotype: the aggressively interfering mother. Her interest in her youngest daughter's love life leads to silly jokes, sexual imagery (women appear in their underwear, some kissing, a brief montage shows one woman with two different partners), and innuendo (including discussion about -- and re-enactment of -- orgasms). Very mild language for PG-13 ("ass," "damn it") and some tame social drinking.
  • Families can talk about romantic comedies. How is this movie like other romantic comedies you've seen? Why do movies in this genre tend to follow the same pattern? Can you think of any examples of obvious "romantic comedy" elements (i.e. making Milly's boyfriends so different that her choice seems obvious to viewers)? Families can also talk about overbearing parents. How can suggestions that are intended to be helpful end up hurting the person they're directed at? Besides criticizing them, how else could Daphne encourage her daughters?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A mother berates her adult daughter and interferes in her dating life; sisters withhold information; Milly cheats on both boyfriends; boyfriends are alternately scheming, angry, and possessive.
What to watch for
  • violence false0 Violence: Pratfalls (two involving cakes); suggestion that a suicidal patient jumps out a window (cake falls on the patient's head).
  • sex false3 Sex: Mother and daughters appear in underwear in locker room (their bottoms appear in close-up and they discuss thongs), subtitled references to Daphne's need for a "stiff one" and "poofter" Daphne watches porn Web site (sounds are explicit; imagery is not); dog humps stool; reference to "woody" discussion of orgasm (with daughter acting out what it's like for her mother); some cleavage; Daphne worries that an unbuttoned dress shows that her daughter is "asking for it" non-explicit montage of sex scenes (Milly with two men); little boy says "gina" (for vagina) and "penis" kissing/making out between Daphne and Joe, who later appear in bed together.
  • language false0 Language: Mild language: "ass," "damn it," plus semi-joke about "Italian for 'late'" ("retardo") and several sexual innuendoes.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Reference to Mentos.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some drinking on social occasions (wine, champagne, brandy).
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

2.5

Dave White Profile See Dave White's Profile

It's dumbly inoffensive, unless you're offended by things that induce napping. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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