Remember at Christmas, when your grandma gave you the same gift she'd given you three years ago? You smiled and played along and thanked her graciously, because whatever, she means well, she's sweet, and for God's sake, she's getting old. She can't be expected to remember every damn thing, and if she's repeating herself, well, she's certainly earned the right. She lived through...maybe not the Depression. But Watergate, surely!

So it is with Diane Keaton. The dear old thing had later-life success a few years ago with Something's Gotta Give, an absurdly well-reviewed romp that found her playing a prim, schoolmarmish playwright fondly humoured by her chic, adoring daughter (Amanda Peet), who encouraged her romantic interest in an age-appropriate suitor (Jack Nicholson). And given that we've seen Keaton, in the past few months, extolling the virtues of L'Oréal beauty products for aging skin, we shouldn't be all that surprised to see the latest evidence of her aging brain: namely Because I Said So, in which she plays a prim, schoolmarmish baker fondly humoured by her chic, adoring daughters (Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo, and Mandy Moore), who encourage her romantic interest in an age-appropriate suitor (Stephen "RevCam" Collins). Keaton is cute and everything, but evidently she doesn't have people around her with sufficient interest in her doings, because in between misplacing her bifocals (they're tipped back on your head, love!) and complaining that the neighbours are stealing Life magazine out of her mailbox (no, honey, they don't make that anymore!), she's not only made the same movie twice: she's also signed on to a few more projects that, shall we say, will not really require her to stretch as an actor.

We'll See

Helen Stapleton (Diane Keaton) is a successful optometrist, long-widowed and enjoying her comfortable adult friendship with her daughter Belinda (Kirsten Dunst). Contemplating retirement, she starts casting about for potential successors to buy out her practice -- including dishy Dr. Dan (John Stamos), who seems interested in more than her eye charts! But when boorish land developer Stanford Bidwell (Gene Hackman) offers to buy the property so that he can turn the block into a luxury apartment house, Helen is as disgusted by his effrontery as she is intrigued by his bracing vulgarity. What will happen to Helen's beautifully appointed office? As she used to tell Belinda when she'd ask for ice cream after a trip to the shoe store: "we'll see!"

Why Would You Want To Hide Your Pretty Face Like That?

Sally Berridge (Diane Keaton) is having an enviably carefree retirement from her career as a corporate vice-president when she gets some shocking news: a company in which a lot of her 401K is tied up is under indictment, and her savings are just about gone. What to do? There's no other option: she decides to go back to school -- beauty school! -- and rent a chair in a chic salon that just happens to be owned by her level-headed daughter Judy (Jessica Biel). Sally is delighted to be working so closely with her daughter, and finds the constant flow of customers invigorating. There's just one problem: when it comes to younger women who find themselves in her chair, Sally is just a little too opinionated about the styles they want. Wild hair colours? Shaggy faux-hawks? Long, long bangs that hang in their eyes? Sally keeps trying to talk her clients out of all of those, and more: "When you do too much crazy stuff with your hair, no one can see your pretty face!" Will Sally doom herself to losing all her customers, or will Judy be able to gather the strength and tell her mother that younger women should be allowed to do whatever they want with their hair? Maybe the solution is to book more end-of-day appointments with Sally for that sexy landscaper (Paul Newman) who's suddenly become just a bit too vain about his crowning glory.

Watch Your Tone

Longtime single mother Christine Martino (Diane Keaton) has been successfully dispensing advice to Chicago's lovelorn as radio host Dr. Chris for...just about as long as anyone can remember! Certainly, it's been long enough for cameos from her daughter Bridget to evolve from lisping "kids say the darndest things" bon mots to the assured analysis of an accomplished young psychologist in her own right (Alison Lohman). And when Bridget announces her engagement on the air -- the same week that brash Texas oilman Hank "Wildcat" Hanover (Billy Bob Thornton) buys the radio station! -- everything in Christine's life changes at once. Hank questions the value of broadcasting love advice from a woman who hasn't had a meaningful relationship with a man since her divorce twenty-three years before...especially when her brilliant and insightful daughter is on the verge of being happily married: who better to take Dr. Chris's place than Dr. Bridget? Poor Christine is torn between loyalty to her daughter, and her wish that Bridget succeed, and her own feelings that she's still too young herself, and has too much to offer, to be put out like yesterday's trash. As Christine schemes to save her own job without sabotaging Bridget, she and Hank clash with the kind of passion that only sparks between people destined never to get along...or never to part! Which will it be?

No Dessert 'Til You Eat Your Vegetables

Sapphire McCready (Diane Keaton) doesn't know much about men. Specifically, she had one night of carnal knowledge with some anonymous fellow she met on the Haight in the early '70s, but found it so distasteful that she fled the next day to join a lesbian separatist commune in Oregon the very next day -- and it was there, right in the middle of a row of organic cabbage, that she gave birth nine months later to her daughter Gita (Elizabeth Banks). But for the better part of thirty years, men haven't been part of Sapphire's world at all, and she never thought they would be again...until the sudden death of Persephone Langton (Maggie Smith), the wealthy founder of Sapphire's commune/farming co-op, Gardens Of The Goddess. Persephone bought the land with her trust fund, but died intestate, so in order for the farm not to be lost to the Man's fascist government, the remaining members of the sisterhood need legal help. Enter Birch Tillson (Peter Fonda), an old hippie-turned-lawyer out of the Eugene area. Birch knows the womyn are suspicious of him, but he's the only lawyer in the region who'll take their case pro bono -- a concession he's happy to make, having been a buyer of their produce for years. While Birch works on the land claim, Sapphire -- having been nominated to keep an eye on Birch -- finds she likes what she sees! But what will her life partner Lilith (Kathy Bates) have to say about it?

There Should Be Enough Room Between You For The Holy Spirit!

Mary-Patricia Costello (Diane Keaton) was just settling into her life as a teacher when she got the shock of her life: her widower brother had died, leaving her custody of his daughter Kathleen. Mary-Patricia had pretty much ruled out motherhood, seeing as she was a nun who'd already been in the convent for ten years! But she left the order to raise Kathleen...and we join the pair just as Kathleen (Keri Russell) is getting ready to marry her boyfriend Steve (Jimmy Fallon). But planning the wedding is complicated: Mary-Patricia never quite settled into secular life and doesn't have much notion of what is expected of the mother of the bride. On top of that, Steve's parents Beverly (Laurie Metcalf) and Doug (Tom Selleck) have just finalized their divorce -- over Beverly's constant, boozy infidelity -- and aren't exactly on friendly terms just yet. But as Doug and Mary-Patricia get to know each other a little better (you know, in the conversations they have after Beverly's passed out), Doug learns that Mary-Patricia may just be the perfect second wife for a man in his situation: not only doesn't she have any proclivities to cheat -- she's never slept with a man in her life! And as Kathleen notices love blooming between her adoptive mother and future father-in-law, she takes a closer look at the frumpy Mary-Patricia and starts thinking what we're thinking: makeover!