This film was not screened in advance for American critics. Here are excerpts from a review in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald:
DIANE Keaton chalked up so much credit during her Woody Allen years that I’ve been looking on her benignly ever since. But this time, sadly, she’s gone too far. She’s turned herself into a mother-in-law joke.
Her name is Marilyn, she has five dogs, a discontented husband and a put-upon son (Dax Shepard) and daughter-in-law (Liv Tyler). She’s introduced in Vince Di Meglio’s “Smother” with fingers adorned by crimson nail polish and a lot of rings, brandishing a cigarette.
Halloween brings Marilyn dressed in a pumpkin suit and Dame Edna glasses. Her marriage has come unstuck, and she is threatening to become a permanent lodger in her son’s house.
It’s very sad to watch Keaton here. In the most excruciating scene, she gets drunk in a bar, staggers up to a microphone and starts to sing, or rather squawk. For those of us who still revere Annie Hall and her blissfully unaffected rendition of “Seems Like Old Times,” this is sacrilege.
Running time: 93 minutes. Rated PG-13 (crude and sexual content, profanity, drugs). At the Empire, Loews Village.