As the title implies, the film centers on a mother-son relationship. Diane Keaton plays Jan Mannus, a widowed mom who hasn’t dated very much since her husband was killed in an automobile accident, almost twenty years before. Jon Heder plays Jeffrey Mannus, Jan’s twenty-nine-year-old son. Jeffrey is unmotivated, klutzy and perfectly content to live with his mother. Jeffrey is an overprotected man-child who steadfastly refuses to share his mother with anyone. He has been working at the same bookstore fir thirteen years and tells everyone he’s living at home until he makes his first be astronomical discovery. He does have a telescope in his room but he never seems to use it. He seems content to collect comic books and play old video games whenever he can.
This living arrangement seems to work out just fine, until Jan meets Merton “Merton” J. Rosenbloom (Jeff Daniels) a motivational speaker or as he prefers, a “success coach” and the two start dating. It’s probably not hard to figure out that the movie revolves around Jeffrey’s pathological attempt to keep Mert away from his mom. Initially, Mert tries to be friends with Jeffrey but when that doesn’t work out, the two engage in a childish clash of wills that lasts almost the entire film.
The biggest problem with Mama’s Boy is that both Jeffrey and Mert are self absorbed idiots; making it awfully hard for the audience to care about either one of them. Jeffrey claims to love his mother more than anything else in the world, yet he’s doing everything he can to destroy a relationship that is finally bringing her some happiness. Meanwhile, Mert is supposed to be this well adjusted success coach but he’s not above ruining Jeffrey’s comic book collection to try and force him out of the house. None of this is very funny, It all seems sort of desperate to me.
In the midst of all this, Jeffrey meets an aspiring singer named Nora Flannigan (Anna Faris), who works in a coffeehouse near his bookstore. He is totally oblivious to her advances, but one wonders what a nice girl like her would see in a jerk like him in the first place.
The best reason to watch Mama’s Boy is the performance of ninety-two-year-year-old Eli Wallach as Jeffrey’s boss, Seymour Warburton. One of Hollywood’s great method actors, Wallach brings humor and bunch to his role as the crotchety bookstore owner, in an otherwise fairly lifeless film.
The story drags and underuse’s the talents of everyone involved. Keaton, Heder, Farris and Wallach all deserve better. Mama’s Boy will only appeal to the world’s most ardent Diane Keaton and Jon Heder fans and those who’ve made it their lives work to watch every film on DVD.
Warner Brothers has offered the film in both standard and widescreen formats on the same disc. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.
The Mama’s Boy DVD offers a commentary by director Tim Hamilton who doesn’t sound to enthusiastic about the film. He imparts nothing of great interest. The DVD also includes a little over six minutes of additional scenes that wouldn’t have made the film any better.
