Excellent, smart action film.

Amateur movie with Big budget

The first must-see film of the year.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The scenario is annoying Mom moves in with son and wife. Expected this to be a bit strained given the subject matter. Actually it was unexpectedly funny in parts. Dax has some good sarcastic lines. Liv Tyler's is pretty but her little girl voice is a bit annoying at times. Diane Keaton is good given a role that could be a bit tiresome. She is very slim and it's nice to see someone who has let herself age naturally. She can play so many roles that others who have had plastic surgery can't. The writing has some unexpected humor. Don't really see the jokes coming from afar. The funeral scene is quite hilarious. Overall it's okay to watch if you have the time.

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.

Watching Smother was perhaps the longest not-quite-90-minutes of my life. There wasn't a laugh to be had; in fact, I don't remember ever cracking a smile. Diane Keaton was horridly unfunny as a middle-aged chain-smoking dog hoarder, the textbook overbearing mother character, a relentlessly irritating woman who clearly suffers from some kind of personality disorder. She is manipulative, conniving, melodramatic, childish, narcissistic, and worst of all, boring.I suppose I should briefly mention the other characters, but why bother? It was just a long string of movie clichés--the dippy, socially inept distant relative who's just trying to break into "The Industry", the gruff and long-suffering but somehow still lovable father, the mild- mannered wife who just can't take it anymore (but eventually moves beyond the discord and resignedly comes home), the herd of unhousebroken dogs who like to chew throw pillows while everyone is away, etc.God, what a snore. I've never been a Diane Keaton fan and Smother only reminded me why. Overacting is overacting, no matter how many pictures you did in your prime. Her attempts at physical comedy were especially humiliating. What was the director thinking?While I like Dax Shepard and can even sometimes tolerate Liv Tyler, their performances were so lackluster and dull that it was clear that neither actor gave a damn about this movie. That was okay, because neither did I. Keaton's endless self-absorbed prattling was intolerable and at times Shepard's dislike for her seemed genuine. By the end of the movie I wanted to slap her myself.Awful.

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.