I just don't get the adulation of Diane Keaton. Are we that hard up for seasoned actresses? (That's a rhetorical question.)

I can't even stand to watch the tv promos for her movies -- she's always selling that concoction of fake physical energy, ersatz intelligent ditz, and cute vulnerability that she manufactured about a million years ago. To me she is an actress of absolutely zero range and way too adept at capitalizing on one irritating character -- "nattering" is exactly the word -- played over and over.

Because of some semi-decent dialogue, I managed to watch "Something's Gotta Give," but that one Keaton vehicle is as much as I can take.

My guess is that somewhere out there are some amazing older actresses who honestly project their age, but they have absolutely no industry clout. What a pity.

I just saw that Holiday movie with two very young and beautiful actresses and it absolutely stunk, so the argument that there aren't roles out there if you're not the young beautiful princess is slightly off the mark. They just don't make movies like Reds anymore, where a woman can be smart, sexy and sexually manipulative, deep and caring, artistic and socially conscientious all at once. Well, I haven't seen The Painted Veil yet, so I could be wrong. Diane Keaton is great, and she is definitely a young sexy 60-year-old, but I have little hope that she'll ever be used in anything but these second-rate films in these roles that any actor could carry off. It sounds stupid to me, but then I didn't need to read this review to know that.

Bull.

Keaton didn't even play the same role in Woody Allen's films. Let alone the parts she played in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Shoot the Moon, Reds, The Little Drummer Girl, Mrs. Soffel, The Good Mother, Something's Gotta Give, The Family Stone.

This is the contemporary actress who best embodies what Method acting means, not becoming the character but using your instrument to bring life to an extraordinary range of characters.

Good Christ! That we still have to make the case for Keaton while Meryl's Accent Showcase is still acclaimed as great acting.

the smug, faux-sardonic "Heathers,"

Maybe she ought to switch over to reporting the shipping news.

Curious that none of the wrap-ups on Keaton's career mention "Heaven", the quasi-documentary film she totally conceived, which is her most remarkable accomplishment.

If you look southward to Brazil, you will find the 77-year old Fernanda Montenegro, who should have won the Best Actress Oscar for Central Station in 1998 (it went to a 26-year-old instead). She has an acting career that began in the fifties and is still extremely active, playing a lead role (with her daughter, Fernanda Torres) in Andrucha Waddington's House of Sand (2005). And she plays dignity, not ditz.

I find the aging fast talking ditzy anal retentive meddling talking talking talking talking talking talking talking thing to be rather grating. In 'The Family Stone', I just wanted the house to burn down and take all of them.

Sorry you missed the glory that was "Heathers", Stephanie. I was one of the teenagers who helped give it "street cred" back in the day, so I suppose I now have to take responsibility for this dud. My bad.

i know what those three words mean individually. i just don't know what they mean strung end to end like that.

Diane Keaton and the rest of the cast of Family Stone were horrible! What a terrible family, not funny or clever - just cruel and irritating. I would have rather been raised by wolves.

how everyone can pig-pile on a critic who knocks "Heathers" and ignore the observation that every single movie the guy has done since (and including the smug, lousy "Heathers") has been a piece of crap. Yeah, Zacharek sure knows nothing for not recognizing the genius of the man who gave the world "Hudson Hawk.'

Who are you people? Where do you go at night?

She did some really nice work back in the day, but she's been a one-trick, hapless, menopausal, "goofy older woman" for at least the last few roles. She should look to Helen Mirren for inspiration.

Incidentally, I happened to catch "As Good as it Gets" on a plane, and though I wouldn't have watched it on my own, I thought, "what the hell, why not?" Um, who thought that crying montage was a good idea? I wanted to throw something at the screen...I think this sums up her recent ridiculous characters.

This piece of crap sounds a lot like the other (piece of shit) movie that came out a year ago that had pitted another fine mature actress in the "mother" role pared with another "up and coming" younger actress, and of course the 'older' actress played a bitchy, over the top control freak.

Lately Hollywood has done a lot of hand-wringing about the decline in their box office sales....I guess they're just too stupid to figure out that a lot of folks just don't want to pay $10.50 to watch the garbage they keep churning out of their stink factories.

I guess it's a good thing for us who are trying to save money.

The same review could have been written without even going to the movie. Most people knew this movie sucked based solely on the trailer.

If you want to see amazing, wonderful films for actresses who have grown into their faces, alas, you probably have to be watching the Brits, who seem to have respect for the wrinklier yet stunning and amazing older women...

Try:

Helen Mirren (age 61) in The Queen

Judy Dench (age 72) in Notes on a Scandal, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies in Lavender

Joan Plowright (age 72) in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Tea with Mussolini

Maggie Smith (age 72) in...anything

Too bad Diane Keaton doesn't get herself a nice juicy part like some of the grand "Dames" of Britain...

Okay, so following the reader letter article, there probably is supposed to be some sort of moratorium on dissing Ms. Zacharek...but she just trashed "Heathers".

Come on, Salon...haven't you had enough of this writer yet? Hasn't she proved clueless, or willful contradictory enough for you?

Yeah, Lehman never made another good film (though I think Hudson Hawk does have its bad movie charms)...he got a hold of a great script and did very little to get in its way. I'm not defending Lehman even slightly. But trashing what is probably the definitive cult comedy of the late 80's is indefensible on every level for a modern film critic.

Please, please, please show her the door.