In Hollywood’s glamour years of the 1940s and 50s, making a successful romantic comedy was easy. Just find some major star power and a fun storyline. Movies such as The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart or Pillow Talk (1959) with Doris Day and Rock Hudson drew raves. Today the genre encompasses many more elements, but I still need to be pleasantly entertained, and Because I Said So came far from achieving that goal.

Blame Diane Keaton for part of the problem. She plays Daphne Wilder, a mother who is superglued to her three daughters -- Maggie (Lauren Graham), Mae (Piper Perabo), Milly (Mandy Moore) -- particularly the unattached Milly. Because Daphne has no man in her life, she wants to make sure Milly doesn't end up in the same boat. And why would she? She's not an overbearing hen, who has to tell the girls where to put their furniture, what kind of cake they like and who they should be with.

Keaton's character comes across as bad enough to ruin the entire movie; I mean do we need mothers to make a successful romantic comedy? It certainly didn't help Monster-In-Law starring Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez. The movie barely showed up on the box office radar.

In addition to the obnoxious character she portrays, Keaton takes it way over the top. Her character never shuts up. Her mouth runs 100 miles an hour during the entire movie while she's doing nervous gyrations all over the floor. Keaton reminded me of a toy robot with a blown battery pack, and she was such a distraction it took away from the other characters.

Milly (Mandy Moore), continually called "baby" by her mother, does a reasonable job in her pursuit of two men, considering this role calls for the actress to move through her character’s predicament like a spoon through bread dough. Little does Milly know, although her sister does and doesn't have the decency to tell her, that mom has put an ad in the newspaper "looking for a mate for my daughter."

Milly's two possible dream dates are Jason (Tom Everett Scott), an architect who in reality would probably never stoop to meeting face-to-face with a mother in order to date her daughter; and Johnny (Gabriel Macht), a hotel musician who actually sees what Daphne is doing and wants a chance to meet Milly. Daphne doesn't think he's right for her daughter and refuses to set him up, but he finds out where Milly works, goes there -- and soon she's dating and sleeping with both guys without either knowing about the other one. Now that's admirable! Of course the plot conveniently includes a few chances for Moore to sing, -- nice songs, but do they fit the plot? No!

Sister Maggie (Lauren Graham), a psychologist, is treating a client who's been wanting to kill himself for years. So sound in psychotherapy, she's the one who betrays Milly by not telling her what mom's up to. Graham has a dry sense of humor that works well in her sitcom Gilmore Girls but serves to exaggerate the ill-conceived script (by Jessie Nelson and Karen Leigh Hopkins) here. Little sis Mae's (Piper Perabo) only job seems to be to let Milly and her mother know how wonderful sex is.

Just when all the girls have about had it with mom, she finally teams up with Uncle Joe (Stephen Collins) who helps watch Johnny's obnoxious son Lionel (Ty Panitz). Their romance -- humping clumsily like dogs on a table -- merely feels thrown in to further accentuate the theme. 

Lionel is another character with no off button. He refuses to behave for anyone, turns cakes over on people, breaks things and is definitely not enjoyable to watch. Every cliché that's ever been in a comedy appears tossed into this film and delivered by very unfunny actresses. Director Michael Lehmann (40 Days and 40 Nights) never seems to have a handle on the characters or the action.

It was all I could do to stay in my seat through this entire disaster, and I'll never be able to tell my husband again that we're going to a particular movie simply "Because I Said So."

Romantic comedies in the last decade have faced many challenges as a result of changing  moral values and the loosening of what can and cannot be seen on the big screen. Today's definition of what constitutes a romantic comedy pops up in recent titles like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers. If this type of hackneyed, trite, fatigued comedy appeals to you, head on over to see Because I Said So.

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated “PG-13” for sexual content including dialogue, some mature thematic material and partial nudity.)

Review also posted on www.reviewexpress.com.