Mack & Rita Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Mack & Rita Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 18, 2022

It's probably a good, or at least an honest, thing that Mack & Rita director Katie Aselton overtly refers to both Freaky Friday (and/or Freaky Friday) and Big in her comments about this film in a making of featurette included on this disc as a bonus item. It's almost preposterously easy to imagine this effort being pitched by some overcaffeinated writer type with a simple, "It's Freaky Friday, only with a girl and her grandmother!" or "It's Big, only with a thirty something woman yearning to be a senior citizen!" As much as either Freaky Friday (in either of its iterations) or Big is a more than evident influence on this film, Mack & Rita may actually remind some curmudgeons (ahem) of a little remembered and very short lived television series, not because of any plot or concept confluence, but more along the lines of how an iconic star like Diane Keaton is utilized for her inherent comic abilities. Some who enjoy television trivia may recall that the 1986-87 television season was notable for any number of interesting series debuts, including such ultimate stalwarts as Designing Women and ALF, and halfway through the season in spring 1987 a little upstart called Fox began broadcasting shows like Married with Children. But long before that network jumped into the weekly broadcast fray, a comedy legend had almost shockingly already come and gone with a series that managed to only eke out eight episodes before cancellation. Life with Lucy was supposed to be Lucille Ball's reentry into the Top 10 of sitcoms, but it ended up being an embarrassing and way too old fashioned series that tried to rely on Lucy's dependable physical comedy shtick without really providing much in the way of intelligent comedy support in terms of things like, you know, characters, dialogues and, well, jokes. Now, Mack & Rita is not a disaster of the proportions of Life with Lucy, but it's still kind of sad in a way to see Keaton mugging so frantically in order to try to gin up at least a smile, if not outright laughter.

One of the kind of odd things that may tend to undercut Mack & Rita's very premise is that it begins with a very young girl named Mack, who is being raised by her totally cool grandmother, who has encouraged her little granddaughter to be a total individual. That would seem to suggest an almost genetic predisposition for Mack to forge her own way in life (and, of course, fashion, this being a Diane Keaton film, after all), but the film takes a rather odd turn almost instantly with an unexplained segue to Mack as an adult (portrayed by Elizabeth Lail) who has inexplicably become a lemming of sorts, following the whims of her BFFs instead of pioneering her own individuality. It's a peculiar transformation that is elided by some psychobabble voiceover, but which kind of subtly tends to discount everything that follows. What makes this all the weirder is that Mack is also shown to be a highly successful author, even if she's currently suffering from writer's block (of course), and that she has a huge Instagram following, which is actually allowing her to pay the bills.

If Mack has somehow abandoned the freewheeling attitude of her now departed grandmother, she at least is surrounded by a gaggle of really supportive friends, including Carla (Taylour Paige), who is about to be married. When Mack, Carla and some other friends congregate in Palm Springs for a little pre-nuptials partying, Mack again finds herself a kind of veritable "third wheel" (even if there are four in this particular group), and begs off joining the rest of the women on their bar hopping and instead uses a nearby sign advertising "past life regression" as a kind of "off ramp", mentioning she might want to write about the experience. What ensues is a patently goofy sequence that sees Mack climbing into a tanning bed (let's just say that this is a bargain basement past life regression center), encountering some kind of mystical force, and emerging as an older version of herself when, under the probing of the facility's manager, Luca (Simon Rex), she says she's "really" a 70 year old trapped in a 30 year old's body. Needless to say, this "new, improved" (?) version of Mack is played by Diane Keaton, who quickly adopts the pseudonym Rita to cover up what's happened.

What ensues is perfectly predictable, with the perhaps unexpected element that Carla more or less immediately believes that Rita is an "aged Mack" and launches into helping her. The film traverses some well worn territory in terms of "just be yourself", but it at least offers some fun performances, especially by a gaggle of elderly women who have a "wine club" that Rita joins. Keaton is Keaton (even the making of supplement says basically the same thing, as if to discount any "performance" issues), and she struts through the film in a variety of stunning outfits (all culled from her own wardrobe according to another featurette), but, much like Lucille Ball in that late if not exactly lamented series, never really has that much to do, aside from repeatedly falling on an exercise treadmill.

Mack & Rita struggles to tug on the heartstrings, which it probably does manage to do in its Deus ex Machina (if Deus is a regression scammer and Machina is a tanning booth) windup which sees a whole cascade of happy endings. Some of the participants in this film talk about it in that aforementioned featurette as a kind of cinematic "palette cleanser" after all the Sturm und Drang we've been suffering through over the past few years for any number of reasons. It may indeed suffice as that, but it might have been a bit better with more nutritional content.

Mack & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mack & Rita is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative technical data on the shoot, but this is a perfectly competent digital capture that I'm assuming had a 2K DI. As has been the case lately with Lionsgate releases, there's noticeable banding on the studio masthead (which I'm assuming is an "archival" masthead, though kind of curiously the banding does not accompany every Lionsgate release I review), but once the actual feature begins, nothing of any major import (there are arguably some very minor "ripples" in a couple of segues where light values change suddenly. The production design here emphasizes almost a candy colored ambience, and suffusion is typically excellent throughout. Detail levels are generally consistent, though there are some passingly softer looking moments in some outdoor material in particular.

Mack & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mack & Rita features an intermittently robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which perhaps utilizes fewer source cues than might be expected, but which still provides some nice "thump worthy" pop moments, especially in the opening and closing sequences. Surround activity is most noticeable in some of the scenes that offer larger groups of people, where there's clear engagement of the side and rear channels for background clamor and ambient environmental sounds. The "transformation" scenes also offer some good whirlwind activity that wafts through the surround channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles.

Mack & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Mack & Rita: Becoming Our Truth (HD; 10:46) offers the bulk of the cast and crew opining about how wonderful Diane Keaton is, with Keaton (of course) in absentia. Hey, real stars don't do EPKs.


• Styling Glamma: The Fashion of Mack & Rita (HD; 4:31) features Allyson Fanger and focuses on the costumes.

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

Mack & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Keaton is also one of the producers on this project, which suggests she saw it as an opportunity to strut her inimitable stuff, but frankly it's some of the supporting performances in this film that may generate more audience empathy and engagement. The film is obviously more than reminiscent of at least a couple of other productions, but fans of the cast will probably find enough here to enjoy. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.