Mack & Rita

I regret to report that it’s an embarrassment all around, despite the talent involved...

It doesn't really understand actual old people, and it seems to think that young people don't want to have fun.

The outside allure of old age and retirement is not enough to hang the film on, and nothing about its treatment of its characters or its takeaways on social media fame come off as insightful or considered.

Virtually no one associated with this film should be congratulated in any way, having ruptured any bridges between Hollywood and senior citizens or for the shocking misuse of Diane Keaton’s considerable skills.

While the humor wobbles, the premise can’t be knocked: Whatever your age, find joy in the present.

Somewhere inside Mack is an old lady, and somewhere inside this movie is a better one that never comes out.

Occasionally funny scenarios and stereotypical remarks about men (the film barely passes the bechdel test) that paradoxically simplify the themes at Mack & Rita‘s core, making it have less of an impact by the time it reaches its inevitable happy ending.

Mack & Rita is a film you’ve seen before. Sure, the plot and the characters are varied slightly, but there’s nothing new or different here. There are six montages in the meager 95-minute runtime, and that alone demonstrates how surface-level the script is

"Mack & Rita" is the third directorial outing from actress Katie Aselton, who showed a sharp eye for tension with her 2012 thriller "Black Rock," but can't quite give new life to a body swap comedy.

The movie flirts with absurdist satire, identity crises, irony, ideas about aging and ageism, May-December rom-com tropes, magical realism, fish-out-of-water comedy and a bunch of other stuff, without fully committing to any of it.