Daphne is the loving, but overbearing mother of three women. Her daughters Maggie and Mae are happily married, but her youngest, Milly, recently broke up with her boyfriend, and Daphne is concerned.
Daphne fears that her daughter cannot find a good man on her own, so she secretly places a personal ad on her behalf. She finds a potential candidate, Jason, and tries to orchestrate a chance meeting of the two. The plan seems flawless until Milly finds her own date, guitarist Johnny, who happens to be a candidate Daphne had previously rejected. Milly is unaware of her mother's scheming and begins relationships with both Jason and Johnny at the same time, with neither aware of the other.
Inevitably, this double-dating takes its toll and Milly becomes estranged from both Jason and Johnny. Meanwhile, Daphne stumbles upon her own perfect match after being alone for many years, and Milly realizes she has to choose between being the daughter her mother wants her to be and being the woman she wants herself to be. Choosing the latter leads to a row with her mother, but when Milly reconciles with Johnny, Daphne comes to realize that this is the relationship that was meant to be in the first place.
The film had a marketing tie-in allowing customers to buy panties with different sayings from the movie.[3]
Reception
Box office
In its first weekend of release, the film placed second in total box office receipts. For the weekend of February 2, 2007, the film earned $13,022,000. As of April 5, 2007; its domestic gross was $42,674,040.[2] According to Box Office Guru, "men showed practically zero interest in the Universal release. Studio research showed that 82% of the audience was female. 55% of the turnout was 35 or older. 83% was Caucasian."[4]
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 4% of 159 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Overly reliant on caricatures and lacking any human insight, Because I Said So is an unfunny, cliche-ridden mess."[5]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 26 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[7] William Booth of The Washington Post rated it the worst movie of 2007.[8]
^Booth, William (December 29, 2007). "Rated PU, Unfit for Any Audience". Washington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2008. Diane Keaton will always be beloved for "Annie Hall"... [but] her mom-rom-com "Because I Said So" is the worst movie of the year.
