A 30-year-old writer (Elizabeth Lail) spends a wild weekend in Palm Springs and wakes up to find she has magically transformed into her 70-year-old self (Diane Keaton).
Mack (Elizabeth Lail) is a 30-year-old who feels like she does not fit in with her friends and peers. She relates more to older women because her grandmother raised her, and though her first book seems to have gathered critical acclaim, Mack has to be an influencer to keep paying the bills. She’s awkward around her cute neighbor, Jack (Dustin Milligan), and only really seems comfortable around her friend, Carla (Taylour Paige).
As she opts out of attending a pop-up concert with her friends, Mack instead decides to do a past-life regression session. She finds that she has turned into a 70-year-old version of herself (played by Diane Keaton) and finally starts to blossom into her true self.
Mack is someone that I could relate to. I often feel older than others my age and don’t fit in with them. My grandmother raised me. I like to write, though I am not an author like her. And I also value comfortable clothing over stylish ones. Despite this, I felt no connection to the character in either of her forms.
My most significant criticism of the film is that everything feels very superficial. There are no stakes. We don’t get to see an internal conflict in Mack as she becomes more popular than Rita. Everyone in the story is very one-note. Carla is just a supportive best friend. Jack is just the love interest who also feels like he doesn’t fit in.
This film also never made me laugh, chuckle, or even smile. Body swap comedies are a sub-genre that I usually enjoy too. There is one funny scene where Keaton struggles using a pilates machine, but it goes on far too long. Keaton does her best, but even she cannot save this movie.
I also think it is weird how it is said that Mack enjoys comfy grandma clothes, but as Rita, she is wearing fashionable combat boots and long scratchy skirts. Truly the personification of a “glamma,” as the film says. Despite a cast of some rising young talent and some all-star funny ladies, “Mack & Rita” is painfully unfunny. It is superficial, underwritten, and just lacking all around.
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