Mack & Rita

Mack & Rita

Starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Lail, Taylour Paige, Dustin Milligan

Directed by Katie Aselton

Diane Keaton was once an Academy Award-winning actress for her work in "Annie Hall," and earned several other accolades for her work in "The Godfather," "The Godfather Part II," "Marvin's Room," "Reds,"and "Something's Gotta Give," but you'd never guess that with her most recent outings such as the abysmally unfunny "Book Club," "Poms," and now the "Big" wannabe body-switching comedy "Mack & Rita." Keaton seems to have found a funk in playing the elderly glamma (glam grandma) who tries to prove with each successive dull outing that age ain't nothing but a number, and the best years are still to come - unless, alas, you're Diane Keaton's career.

Mack Martin (Elizabeth Lail) has always been an older woman living in a younger woman's body, having been raised by her no-nonsense grandmother with a strong fashion sense, she struggled to fit in with girls her own age due to her desire to stay at home, sleep, wear old clothing, and speak her mind without filter. She managed to hide who she really is and found a friend in Carla (Taylour Paige), who asks her to be her maid of honor at her upcoming wedding. On a bachelorette party outing, she splits from the younger girls and goes to a tent offering past life regression run by the eccentric Luca (Simon Rex). Mack years to be older, to be able to rest, and be her true self, and when she comes out of the regression machine she's now a seventy-year-old woman (Diane Keaton), and understandably is shocked by the outcome, but Luca is already gone.

She convinces Carla about what happened, and together they try to track down Luca before Carla's wedding, but in the meantime Mack - now going by Rita, Mack's "aunt" - is finally allowed to be her true self, and express herself as she's always wanted, drawing the attention of her neighbor Jack (Dustin Milligan) and finding friends with Carla's mother Sharon (Loretta Devine) and her wine club members (Wendie Malick, Lois Smith, and Amy Hill). She also becomes a viral sensation with her unique and fashionable style, being dubbed the "Glammy Granny" and earning lucrative endorsements. When it comes time to track down Luca, Mack must make a decision - revert back to her thirty-year-old body, or remain a seventy-year-old Instagram model but also possibly lose her best friend and herself in the process.

"Mack & Rita" has a very heartfelt story about the importance of being yourself despite what other people think about you, but is told in a very bland, generic, stereotypical way. Tom Hanks managed to pull it off in "Big" because it was unique and different, but there's been several body swapping films since then, and "Mack & Rita" is faulted with a typical script that follows every note in perfect succession to its most logical conclusion, but even then it seems rather stinted. A girl out of water with her own kind wants to be able to express herself freely, and is given the chance when she turns into the older woman she always wanted to be. While being able to express herself as "Rita," Mack fulfills everything she wanted to do in life, and lives a fairytale dream that's impossible in the real world. She becomes famous, gets the attention of the very attractive younger neighbor, and finds comfort in being able to be who she really is, despite not being who she really is on the outside. Yes, it allows her inside to come out, but it all culminates in the typical struggle: go to her best friend's wedding rehearsal or attend a wealthy event that'll give her much-needed income. We all know what she chooses and the consequences of her action, but even here they're muted and sidelined in favor of just ending the dang thing.

Diane Keaton does salvage some of her acting cred here, playing Rita perfectly with a blend of slapstick comedy and geriatric jokes that often are met with cricket sounds, but at least Keaton seems to be enjoying the experience - unlike the viewers. Elizabeth Lail has very limited screentime as Mack, but the fleeting moments with her are met with your sunshine generic feel even though she struggles to be who she really is. Taylour Paige is always amazing, and she brings Carla to life as only she could, but is dampened by a subpar script that directs her momentum, resulting in an inconsistent character - be supportive until she's not, be upset until she gets over it, be in control until she's not in control. Loretta Devine, Wendie Malick, Lois Smith and Amy Hill steal the show as the wine ladies who offer sage advice along with inappropriate humor that gave the most laughs in the audience (a few chuckles), and Dustin Milligan and Simon Rex merely exist as a possible love interest and eccentric past life regression guru respectively.

There's not a lot that makes "Mack & Rita" remotely memorable, becoming just another bland "love yourself at any age" movie that Diane Keaton seems to find herself playing nowadays. Maybe she thinks that her age stints her from finding real work, but women her age are still killing it in cinema - just look at Meryl Streep and Jamie Lee Curtis - so she can find something better than what she's been doing in recent years. Though it offers a valuable message, it's lost in the mundane monotony of a haphazard script that seems to come to a screeching halt and cuts any loose ties off prematurely without any decent conclusion - but that's a favor for the audience, as if they had to sit through any more of this 95 minute film, they'd think they aged thirty years as well.

The Score: D-