"Mack & Rita" mostly fails Diane Keaton and her daffy charm

Mack & Rita (2022)

Don’t you hate when you climb into a magical tanning bed and come out stumbling as a daffy, neurotic, long-sleeve-wearing Diane Keaton? At least that’s the “30 Going on 70” situation in the age-swapping comedy “Mack & Rita.” Come to think of it, Keaton never got her “Big” or “13 Going on 30,” but this amiable if painfully predictable and instantly forgettable fluff is still not it. This is the kind of movie that many will call “cute” instead of “good.” 

Elizabeth Lail (2019’s “Countdown”) is charming in her own right as Mack, a 30-year-old writer who was raised by her grandmother and always considered herself an “old gal.” She sold one book, but now her agent (Patti Harrison, in typically acerbic Patti Harrison fashion) coaches her to be more hip and up her social media influencer game. When her bestie/“wife for life” Carla (Taylour Paige) is all ready to celebrate her bachelorette weekend in Palm Springs, Mack feels like the odd gal out. After bottomless-mimosa brunch, she skips out on the Bad Bunny concert. Instead, Mack checks out a tent in a parking lot with a sign, “Regress and Be Blessed,” and a traveling shaman (Simon Rex, following his more interesting work in “Red Rocket”). Because why not? He encourages Mack to climb into a “regression pod” (a tanning bed) while he chants, and after some magical flickering of the lights and a blast of air, Mack comes out as her 70-year-old self (Keaton). Hah, the old soul is now actually…old. After convincing Carla that it’s really her in there, Mack pretends to be Mack’s “Aunt Rita” in the meantime before she can change back to her old, er, younger self. 

Whether it’s a mother and daughter, a father and son, polar opposites, or the younger and older versions of the same person, the magical body-swapping scenario is always a fun concept. It can mine broad comedy and soul-searching pathos, neither of which are successful here. The script by Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh doesn’t attempt to shake up the formula, despite the “nowness” of social media. Even the direction the movie takes with Rita and Mack’s cute neighbor (Dustin Milligan), who dog-sits Mack’s dog Cheese (hah, get it?), goes exactly where you think it will. It’s also odd that everyone around Mack just seems to accept that she’s gone missing to write, while Rita has just taken her place. In maybe the film’s only highlight, Rita does start hanging out with an all-ladies club, played by Loretta Devine, as Carla’s grandmother, and Amy Hill, Wendie Malick, and Lois Smith. They make a fun group, even if they’re all defined by drinking wine every day. 

One of the fundamental problems is that Mack and Rita don’t even feel like the same person. Sure, “Aunt Rita” says things to Carla that only Mack would know, but personality-wise, there’s not much consistency between Elizabeth Lail and Diane Keaton’s often shrill performance. Back to directing after 2013’s bleak, tense, efficient thriller “Black Rock,” actress/filmmaker Katie Aselton makes the most basic use of Keaton’s talents. Having played several characters where age was always a sticking point but never a defining trait, Keaton gets to dither and stumble around playing a character who’s really 30. She deserves funnier material than labored gags of Rita fumbling on a Pilates machine, getting high on mushrooms, and later catching fire during a collective-breathing seminar at an influencer event. It’s all so lame, even as sitcom stuff.

By the end—and no, this spoils nothing—Mack is apparently a wiser young gal for living as a spry old gal, but you’ll have wished this script had been swapped for a better one. “Mack & Rita” keeps it very light, but it’s not very funny and not wise enough. Diane Keaton is a total pro when it comes to comedy and always such a delightfully daffy presence, and that should be enough. Too bad her game efforts are in vain this time around. 

Grade: C

Gravitas Ventures released “Mack & Rita” (95 min.) in theaters on August 12, 2022.