For those of us who remember Diane Keaton as the consummate Woody Allen heroine in Annie Hall, Interiors and Manhattan, it is heartening and reassuring to see Ms Keaton holding her own despite all odds.At 70-plus she continues to be gloriously active on screen, and we are grateful.
Curiously all of Ms Keaton’s winter-time screen outings seem to get the American critics unhappy. All her recent films like Book Club, Hampstead and Love Weddings & Other Disasters have been unceremoniously trashed by American critics; makes me wonder what they expect from the veteran: Manhattan Part 2 or maybe Something’s Gotta Give Again?
Katie Aselton’s Mack & Rita is not even half as awful as some critics(what do they want from her?!) have made it out to be. Not too fond of body-switch comedies I was initially unimpressed when 30-year old Mack (Elizabeth Lail) changes into 70-year old Rita(Diane Keaton). What follows is far more interesting than the transformation itself.
Keaton as a 30-year old trapped in a 70-year old’s body , gets a chance to do all the things that a woman her age seldom gets to do in our cinema including a cute romance with a guy old enough to be her …you know how it goes.
Formulistic but never dreary , Mack & Rita has many punctuated moments of fun . The premise which could have fallen flat on its grinning face, works largely if not entirely because Diana Keaton knows how to act as a older person twice her character’s age while Keaton is actually much closer in age to the woman whom her character supposedly body-hops with.
A very silly premise is ably transformed into a levitated comedy of terror where ageism is a tale not trolled but tenderly transformed into tidalwave of titters.
Some situations in the plot are genuinely mirthful. When Diane Keaton’s Rita gives youthful vibes to Jack(Dustin Milligan, transporting some credibility to an underwritten part) because,well she actually is young, the screen lights up with a discernible distress-call to people who think doing fun things is the birthright of the young only.Some scenes like Keaton trying pilates and failing miserably make the actress look so vulnerable , it is like breaking the rules of the very genre that Keaton occupies so confidently.
Keaton is a cloudburst of comic wisdom. She brings to her role the sighing nostalgia of a 70-year old as well as the world weariness of a 30-year old. She merges the two personalities into her own personality making this a treat for all her fans who have watched her growth and evolution from the 1970s to every decade in the last millennium , and now in this millennium.
Mack & Rita may not qualify as great cinema. Far from it! But as a vehicle to spotlight its leading lady’s indefatigable spirit, it works fine.
