First of all , if you are a Diane-fan, you have to see everything she does
because you never know what you are going to end up liking. She is a very fast worker (from her no -rehersal Woody Allen days) and she likes to work (she has houses to pay for-not to mention “OUTFITS”.
So if the director, or the screen writer, or the supporting cast, turns out
at the end to be not so good, thwy really can’t go back and retool it because she’s already on to something else. And budget is not the culprit either, I like some of her cable movies quite a bit more than
some of the feature films.

“Mad Money” disapointed me the first time that I saw it because, like
everyone else, I expected it to be funnier. But it had a good cast and a couple of inventive scene treatments and I liked it better when I saw it again (which most people didn”t do).

“Smother” was hardly seen by anyone in its limited release that was overshadowed by politics, but I liked it. Diane’s character was wackier
than in some other movies, but the opening scene in the pumpkin suit
was a big clue that this was a movie where you just play along and
see what happens without taking the whole thing very seriously. I would rather watch that one than “The Family Stone” (which was supposed to be funny, and made me cry because of the friends and reletives that had died in my life recently), or “Because I Said So” in
which I did not like any of the other charcters except for the one Diane
marries in the end.

However, I would give “Momma”s Boy” that came out on DVD only last
year a Razzie for not being very good, but again it wqasn”t Diane as
much as the whole rest of the picture.

There are lots of people out there who think Diane Keaton is wasting her considerable talent on these films since “Somethings Gotta Give”, and I agree that “Surrender Dorothy” really has been the only impressive one. But what I lways say is “Okay, shes great but also a little difficult to find good parts for- if you can find a good book, or play,
or screenplay for her to do, then PLEASE send it to her! And, yes,
directing something (which she is good at), or producing something,
or doing a book(which she is) is probably a better use of her time and talent. But if she does that, we still want to see her on talk shows
because we would miss her!