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The movie “Mike and Rita” — which adds granny chic to two things that aren’t needed on the screen, like lazy filmmaking and a tired old concept — can be distilled into one word: cringe.
Few should congratulate anyone associated with this film in any way for breaking any bridges between Hollywood and the elderly, or for a shocking misuse of Diane Keaton’s superb skills.
“Mike and Rita” Opening in theaters Friday, it takes the traditional concept of body swapping — think “Big,” “Freaky Friday,” “13 Going on 30” and even “Jumanji” — and makes it worse, worse.
This time, it’s a 30-year-old writer with the perfect apartment and a puppy who undergoes cursory past-life regression therapy and ends up being a sassy 70-year-old grandma, played by Keaton, who gets the treatment. A terrible character, she mostly just lingers in a series of bland scenes.
Written by Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh, it has a scientifically supernatural plot and atmosphere like the ’80s films Weird Science or Back to the Future, and adds rom-coms, mismatched love interests to spice up the failed premise. It wants us to learn to embrace age gracefully and make everyone feel good about themselves. But first there has to be a lot of anti-ageism body comedy.
It begins with our author Mike (played by Elizabeth Lyle), who is struggling with his second book and has to make low-level posts on Instagram for cash. She feels out of place with her stylish LA friends — including a memorable good Taylor Paige — and while her style is about to kill, her inner soul is shit and just wants to sit back with wine and ice piece.
If you’re wondering what’s going to happen to the movie, a voiceover helpfully announces: “I grew up feeling like an old woman trapped in a little girl’s body.” Soon, that became a reality.
Keaton takes over the roughly 20-minute mark as Rita, but she’s usually the subject of jokes, not the creator. Not only did director Katie Aselton abuse the Oscar-winner, but her scenes often don’t end with being dumped or embarrassingly disappearing.
It’s a movie where if there was a swimming pool Keaton would stumble into it. If there was alcohol, she would get drunk and say inappropriate things. The film’s nadir is in the Pilates studio, where Keaton’s montage of using resistance bands in a totally unexpected way ends with facial plants.
“It was a nightmare. My hair was different. It was really weird,” she said. “It felt like well-coated wire or something.” Then, after losing 4 decades in 10 minutes, she appeared happily trying on clothes.
In some ways, we have to give some credit to Keaton himself for making this monster long before it became a script. She’s been credited as the inspiration for the so-called “coastal granny” look, which was apparently all the rage among the crowd in cardigans and linen pants. But she doesn’t deserve this horror show, does she?
Although the young writer inside the grandmother initially tried to combat her instant aging with a variety of procedures and youthful treatments — and her horrific scene with “mushroom” highs — she began to realize something about age: “It’s not Insult. That’s where I’m at: I’m old.”
So why does the movie seem so insulting?
There’s been some recent outcry about “Batgirl,” a film that was fully made but never came out due to creative and financial calculations. Why this fate was not doomed “Mike and Rita” is a puzzle.
“Mack & Rita” by Gravitas Ventures is rated PG-13 for “certain drug use, sexual implication, and language.” Run time: 94 minutes. None of the four stars.
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MPAA definition of PG-13: Strong parental warning. Some materials may not be suitable for children under the age of 13.
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online: https://www.mackandritamovie.com
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Mark Kennedy in http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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