This bad movie was just what I said in my title up top. Diana Keaten was once a likable actress who I enjoyed in films like 1987's "Baby boom", 1995's "First wives club", and Steve Martin's wife in both "Father of the bride" movies (1991 and 1993). However after the turn of the new millennium, she seemed to turn to more annoying desperate overacting. Her 2003 film with Jack Nicholson "Something's gotta give" was her first sign of that, but she was not as bad in that as she was here. At least there Keaton had one fairly amusing part, and it was funny how it was done, they showed a montage of numerous 5 second scenes of her crying non-stop in the car, then in the shower,...etc. That's exactly what I felt like doing after watching her and the other characters here in "Smother".
Many post-2000 movies have these ridiculously over-the-top bosses, such as Dax Shepard's boss at this movie's start, who yell and fire their employees in ways that are both extremely unfunny and cringeworthy ("Cat and the hat" had a boss who was even more cringeworthy in that same style, when I had the misfortune of watching that atrocity with my then 6 year old nephew (a movie which turned out to be horribly in appropriate for 6 year olds)). Keaten's cringeworthy behavior in "Smother" begins when suddenly showing up at Dax's house to move in. She first, of course, shows up with the "nesessary" 5 hyper rambunctious little dogs that always must come with this type of plot, and she shows up wearing a stupid pumpkin costume while screeching away the second she's there. Seriously? Then she continues her nonstop screaming, over-the-top (OTT) acting, and airheadedness. This is all the last thing that Dax wanted, and the last thing that I wanted.
Of course we first get Dax's wife Liv Tyler (but the only fairly tolerable character in this movie) pleading for him to chill out about it and give her a chance. Then we get Liv's brother Myron, who I really really disliked, also barging into their home almost around the same time as Keaton, and using some supposed upcoming writing seminar as an excuse to stay. Myron had absolutely no problem with gluing himself to their couch long-term, stealing Dax's toothbrush to brush his feet, and clipping his toenails practically in Dax's face. Then, there's Dax's new boss at a carpet store who also possesses the typical OTT 21st century movie-boss attitude. He hires Dax and Keaten, but with the condition of being an ultimate jerka** and telling them that they better shut up and deal with it or else hit the road. He makes suggestive gestures behind an elderly lady customer? Not ok. He makes it crystal clear that Dax and Keaten better do what the hell he says and ask no questions. But, with knowing by this time in the movie what Keaton's character is like, will she mess the job up for both her and Dax with her overbearing behavior and airheaded slip ups? Does a bear s*** in the woods?
Then there's Keaten's husband (and Dax's dad) who she walked out on for suspecting him cheating. Then Keaten stupidly decides to keep stealing Dax's car in the middle of the night to go spy on him outside their house. Then, he shows up at Dax's household making more waves in annoying and unfunny ways, and of course at the one moment Keaten has like ten guests over there so there's a big scene being made in front of all of them. That's just obligatory.
On another note kinda interesting, at one point Dax's dad sits with Dax while watching an old 1950s film with June Allyson, fast forwarding through each scene she's in and saying how he can't stand her. When I first saw this movie back in around 2009, I thought that Dax's cranky sour grandmother living with his dad was supposed to be June Allyson, now old, and that was the reason he didn't want to watch her scenes in the movie. Of course that wasn't it though, these 21st century movies don't know how to come up with good interesting ideas like that anymore. I've seen a few of June Allyson's films now though, and I like her. And I enjoy many classic films from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, most of them are much better than most modern 21st century movies, "Smother" being one on that long list of them
Then there's the scene of grandma dying. But the way they did it here was awful. She dies at the bowling alley in her electric wheelchair, stoops over which makes her motionless body push into the button which rolls her chair right down the lane into the bowling pins as her now dead body falls off the chair into them making a strike, followed by the monitor showing "turkey strike!!" complete with "gobble gobble" sounds heard. This movie trying to make her death scene funny was bad enough, but then doing it in the dumbest way like this was so unacceptable. This is yet another example of why I don't care for many 21st century comedies. Then, there's the next stupid annoying scene at grandmother's funeral, with Dax and Keaten going back and forth to the podium up front ranting back and forth to each other having a hissy argument in front of everyone. I mean, really?
Then after the stupid funeral quarreling, we get some motel lounge with Keaten loudly and very out of tune singing Madonna's "Borderline", while obviously still angry. It's like there weren't enough annoying scenes already.
I did sorta like Liv Tyler's character, but just a little bit, and she was the only one I thought even that of. She's nice and attractive, but she was even better in 2004's "Jersey girl". And she gets upset and leaves Dax at one point, I sort of didn't blame her.
