Smother

Diane Keaton is going through a really rough couple of years. Lets check her last few movies:Because I Said So-Shocking film and didn't go so well at the box office, Mama's Boy- Shocking film, horrific at the box office and Mad Money-A good movie in my book, but a poor box office return.

So where does that leave Smother? Here we have a mother who moves in with her son causing chaos in her son's life. Its a fun comedy, but with nothing new or exciting that we haven't seen before. Dax Shepherd steers the ship, and is actually not to bad as the lead who's life just keeps getting harder and harder. As for Keaton, well she is a lot of fun as the annoying mother who doesn't want to move out of her son's house. She plays it rather well and her character is actually quite likable. She has great chemistry with Dax and together they make a great team.

So what flaws this movie if not Keaton, who has been out of form for so long? Its Liv Tyler, her performance is so fake and forced that you find yourself cringing at each word that comes out of her mouth. She is not believable at all and in a scene of her being angry she is practically laugh worthy! Its good to see Keaton slowly getting back into form after her shocking last couple of movies, Mad Money not included. But Liv Tyler needs to try harder and she is the real problem with this film. But other than that, Smother is a not bad comedy for a lazy afternoon.

Totally forgettable. Specially because of the weak acting. This is the first movie I've seen with Dax Shepard. To my surprise, he's been around since the late 90's. I thought he was a newcomer, since his acting was so bland. I could say the same about Liv Tyler. Although I've seen her do well in other movies, she gave Clare Cooper a strange personality. Liv is not the kind of actress that will give the character a fiery, emotional personality like Diane Keaton would be able to, but it was pretty strange to see her say her lines in whisper mode. It seemed that altogether there simply wasn't a very good chemistry going on between the actors, and I think Diane Keaton sensed that as well. She's a fantastic actress, but seemed just a bit over the top in this movie. It felt like she just wanted to get this movie over as soon as possible. I wouldn't blame her.

I have an unexplainable fondness for this slight, oddball 2008 comedy. It's not the catastrophic train wreck others would have you believe it is. Instead, director/screenwriter Vince DiMeglio has concocted a screwball farce with off-kilter characters that alternate between endearing and irritating, often in the same moment. The film is by no means a significant milestone in cinema, but it does generate some unexpected laughs mostly due to Diane Keaton's freewheeling performance. The Oscar-winning actress may appear to be slumming here, but her dexterity is put to the test as one incredibly needy and critical mother.

Usually a second banana in films, Dax Shepard ("Baby Mama") plays Noah, a physical therapist who gets fired and wants to change his luck by starting his own practice. Married to Clare, a schoolteacher who wants to have a baby badly, he finds his wife's cousin Myron, a dweeby screenwriter wannabe, parked on the couch. Later, Noah's mom Marilyn drops by unexpectedly after a big fight with his father. She moves in with her five dogs, all named Sammy Higgins, and together they find jobs at the carpet store where used to work. Her flighty incompetence gets them both fired, and things get even worse from there.

Shepard relies heavily on a deadpan delivery to carry his performance. Liv Tyler ("The Lord of the Rings") is sweet as Clare, and Mike White ("The Good Girl") manages to make his creepiness oddly likable. But it's Keaton who amps up her innate zaniness to draw a beleaguered level of sympathy to a character that could have been buried in sitcom-level clichés. For evidence, watch her work the scene in the Denny's-style restaurant or trade barbs with Shepard in the funeral scene. Production values are on the modest side. The 2009 DVD features an entertaining commentary track from DiMeglio (who reveals that the story is somewhat autobiographical) and a brief making-of featurette.

This bad movie was just what I said in my title up top. Diana Keaten was once a likable actress who I enjoyed in films like 1987's "Baby boom", 1995's "First wives club", and Steve Martin's wife in both "Father of the bride" movies (1991 and 1993). However after the turn of the new millennium, she seemed to turn to more annoying desperate overacting. Her 2003 film with Jack Nicholson "Something's gotta give" was her first sign of that, but she was not as bad in that as she was here. At least there Keaton had one fairly amusing part, and it was funny how it was done, they showed a montage of numerous 5 second scenes of her crying non-stop in the car, then in the shower,...etc. That's exactly what I felt like doing after watching her and the other characters here in "Smother".

Many post-2000 movies have these ridiculously over-the-top bosses, such as Dax Shepard's boss at this movie's start, who yell and fire their employees in ways that are both extremely unfunny and cringeworthy ("Cat and the hat" had a boss who was even more cringeworthy in that same style, when I had the misfortune of watching that atrocity with my then 6 year old nephew (a movie which turned out to be horribly in appropriate for 6 year olds)). Keaten's cringeworthy behavior in "Smother" begins when suddenly showing up at Dax's house to move in. She first, of course, shows up with the "nesessary" 5 hyper rambunctious little dogs that always must come with this type of plot, and she shows up wearing a stupid pumpkin costume while screeching away the second she's there. Seriously? Then she continues her nonstop screaming, over-the-top (OTT) acting, and airheadedness. This is all the last thing that Dax wanted, and the last thing that I wanted.

Of course we first get Dax's wife Liv Tyler (but the only fairly tolerable character in this movie) pleading for him to chill out about it and give her a chance. Then we get Liv's brother Myron, who I really really disliked, also barging into their home almost around the same time as Keaton, and using some supposed upcoming writing seminar as an excuse to stay. Myron had absolutely no problem with gluing himself to their couch long-term, stealing Dax's toothbrush to brush his feet, and clipping his toenails practically in Dax's face. Then, there's Dax's new boss at a carpet store who also possesses the typical OTT 21st century movie-boss attitude. He hires Dax and Keaten, but with the condition of being an ultimate jerka** and telling them that they better shut up and deal with it or else hit the road. He makes suggestive gestures behind an elderly lady customer? Not ok. He makes it crystal clear that Dax and Keaten better do what the hell he says and ask no questions. But, with knowing by this time in the movie what Keaton's character is like, will she mess the job up for both her and Dax with her overbearing behavior and airheaded slip ups? Does a bear s*** in the woods?

Then there's Keaten's husband (and Dax's dad) who she walked out on for suspecting him cheating. Then Keaten stupidly decides to keep stealing Dax's car in the middle of the night to go spy on him outside their house. Then, he shows up at Dax's household making more waves in annoying and unfunny ways, and of course at the one moment Keaten has like ten guests over there so there's a big scene being made in front of all of them. That's just obligatory.

On another note kinda interesting, at one point Dax's dad sits with Dax while watching an old 1950s film with June Allyson, fast forwarding through each scene she's in and saying how he can't stand her. When I first saw this movie back in around 2009, I thought that Dax's cranky sour grandmother living with his dad was supposed to be June Allyson, now old, and that was the reason he didn't want to watch her scenes in the movie. Of course that wasn't it though, these 21st century movies don't know how to come up with good interesting ideas like that anymore. I've seen a few of June Allyson's films now though, and I like her. And I enjoy many classic films from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, most of them are much better than most modern 21st century movies, "Smother" being one on that long list of them. Some 90s movies however, did have characters who often yelled in over-the-top unessessarily angry ways. They were usually 90s B movies though.

Then in "Smother", there's the scene of grandma dying. But the way they did it here was awful. She dies at the bowling alley in her electric wheelchair, stoops over which makes her motionless body push into the button which rolls her chair right down the lane into the bowling pins as her now dead body falls off the chair into them making a strike, followed by the monitor showing "turkey strike!!" complete with "gobble gobble" sounds heard. This movie trying to make her death scene funny was bad enough, but then doing it in the dumbest way like this was so unacceptable. This is yet another example of why I don't care for many 21st century comedies. Then, there's the next stupid annoying scene at grandmother's funeral, with Dax and Keaten going back and forth to the podium up front ranting back and forth to each other having a hissy argument in front of everyone. I mean, really?

Then after the stupid funeral quarreling, we get some motel lounge with Keaten loudly and very out of tune singing Madonna's "Borderline", while obviously still angry. It's like there weren't enough annoying scenes already.

I did sorta like Liv Tyler's character, but just a little bit, and she was the only one I thought even that of. She's nice and attractive, but she was even better in 2004's "Jersey girl". And she gets upset and leaves Dax at one point, I sort of didn't blame her.

I saw this film last night and I throughly loved it. Dianne as always is a piece of art. She never got out of character and I have met someone exactly like her. I have never been disappointed with Dianne's work and you definitely won't be with Smother. The combination with Dax and Dianne really clicked and it worked. This film is perfect for any age and is really a nice change of fresh air that is out there. This film is a feel good movie and highly recommend it. This is perfect for those who feel that their parents are smothering them. I see Dax is starting to have a future as he seems really natural with his character. My advise: GO SEE IT !!!