From the looks of the TV ads, "Because I Said So" is an intergenerational romantic comedy about a woman of a certain age trying to find a man who feels good about her neck.

It turns out Daphne Wilder (Diane Keaton) doesn't have to worry about her neck. It's what's on top of it that's the problem. As the almost-60-year-old mother of three grown daughters, the youngest of whom (Mandy Moore) she's desperately trying to marry off, Daphne is the embodiment of toxic parenting, her enmeshment in her children's lives so neurotic that she seems more like a stalker than a mother.

Hooting and pratfalling her way through a mortifyingly demeaning role, her lithe frame forced into a succession of ridiculous cinch-waisted get-ups, Keaton resembles a whooping crane on Ritalin, in a borderline psychotic turn. One can only wonder whether, after winning our hearts so thoroughly in "Manhattan" and "Annie Hall," she's now hellbent on destroying any shred of dignity remaining after "Something's Gotta Give."

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. "Because I Said So" could easily wind up being used as a text in medical schools for pathological boundary violations (or acting schools for hysterically mannered performances). Next patient!

-- Ann Hornaday (Feb. 2, 2007)

Contains sexual content including dialogue, some mature thematic material and partial nudity.