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Anne Thompson: Because I Say So!

Anne Thompson (Archived Contributor)
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In THR’s Risky blog, Anne Thompson trumpets Diane Keaton for the star power that earned “Because I Said So” a $13-million opening, despite generally poor reviews.

Thompson writes: “I love all these articles about the silver foxes, like the EW cover with Judi Dench, Meryl Streep and the inevitable winner of the Best Actress Oscar, Helen Mirren. But while Diane Keaton has been getting some well-deserved publicity for her role in Because I Said So, the real story here is that the movie opened at $13 million after getting slammed by some of the worst reviews of the year (mostly written by men). Even knowing that, Nora and I went to see it Saturday and couldn’t get into the showing at The Grove. (We were late, natch.) Why did we go? Because we are a mother and daughter, and that’s what the movie was about, and we’re starved for romantic comedies. Nora wanted to see Gilmore Girl Lauren Graham and Mandy Moore; I wanted to see Keaton. The mark of a star is being able to open a movie even when it isn’t great. Everyone knew Tom Cruise was a star when he opened Cocktaill, and when Julia Roberts opened Sleeping with the Enemy. Diane Keaton is a star.

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Anne Thompson (Archived Contributor)

At her daily Thompson on Hollywood blog, Anne Thompson does more than just break news; she provides an insider’s clear-eyed analysis of a business that defines American culture at home and abroad.Born and raised in New York, Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety, and deputy editor of Variety.com, where she launched Thompson on Hollywood in March 2007. Thompson was the Deputy Film Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film industry column Risky Business for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate.A graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, she hosts the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension, and teaches film criticism at USC.