SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE ----------------------
Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson) is a sixty-three year old bachelor famed for dating women less than half his age. When he accompanies his latest flame, Marin (Amanda Peet, "Igby Goes Down"), to her mother's beach house in the Hamptons, he suffers a heart attack before he makes his conquest. Marin's mom, fifty-five year old playwright Erica Barry (Diane Keaton), is freaked when she learns she'll be left with Harry while he recuperates, but when the doubting duo let their defenses down, "Something's Gotta Give."
Writer/director Nancy Meyers ("What Women Want") feeds into feminist fantasy for a second time by creating an incorrigible bachelor to humble in the name of love. "Something's Gotta Give" is head and shoulders better than Meyer's last film (which she did not write), but that is largely due to her terrific ensemble cast. The churning of this romantic comedy's gears becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses.
At the local hospital, Harry's doctor, Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves, "The Matrix Revolutions"), catches the eye of both Marin and her aunt Zoe (Frances McDormand, "Laurel Canyon"), but his eye has been caught by Erica and when he learns her identity, he's even more intrigued, having seen all her plays. Before she knows what's hit her, Erica is out on her first date in years with a man almost twenty years younger. To complicate matters, when Marin stops in at Mom's late one night, she detects that 'there's more cooking in that kitchen than pancakes' after interrupting Erica and Harry preparing a late night snack in their pj's. Marin gracefully backs out and soon Harry is testing his ticker, sans Viagra no less, in Erica's bedroom, but although the commitment-phobe knows his heart has been touched, Harry's habits are too ingrained and he retreats back into his old lifestyle.
Meyer embellishes her script with paeans to aging domesticity like the reading glasses which get switched between Erica and Harry and the need to consider blood pressure levels before canoodling, but she unfortunately bungles genre conventions. While the pairing of Keaton and Reeves is certainly intriguing, Meyer gives Mercer little respect, using the character as an obvious romantic obstacle (particularly mercilessly in the film's climax). Erica rails and sobs over her abandonment (thankfully, Keaton actually makes all the sobbing comedic) then therapeutically pours her heartbreak into a her new play, but except for the twist of killing off Harry, Meyer makes no transition from reality to fiction, leaving her world famous playwright looking like nothing more than a kiss and teller. Erica's ex suddenly remarrying a woman younger than his daughter is another awkwardly handled contrivance to throw Erica back into Harry's path - it's not exactly clear what's going on initially because the daughter is so hysterical about the situation that mom must swoop into the city to calm her (forgetting a date with Dr. Mercer in the bargain - there is no sorrier, nor unbelievable, sight than Keanu Reeves, as a charming doctor no less, being stood up).
Meyers does get a great vibe going with her cast however. Jack has never been more of a rapscallion and gets an opportunity to display a knack for physical comedy. He lasciviously licks an ice cream while watching the departing rump of Marin, careens around hospital corridors with a flapping johnny, and makes a fall out of bed laugh out loud funny. Of course, Jack is being Jack - his concession to character is to rein in his eyebrow waggling - but he does manage to put across the impression of a changed man. Diane Keaton, on the other hand, flies with this role. She puts across a successful woman who has grown content being single until she's shaken up from two fronts. She's smart and sexy (even appearing nude, albeit briefly, for the first time in decades) and has great chemistry with Jack as a lover (their sex scene is hilarious - Jack's 'Who's the lucky boy!' is delivered with the enthusiasm of his famous "Here's Johnny!" ad lib) and Peet in a natural mother/daughter pairing. Reeves is confident as a compassionate physician and he makes his attraction to Erica believable with an expression that is both amused and quizzical when he regards her. McDormand's Columbia professor of women's studies delivers her tart commentaries with a matter-of-factness that makes them hilarious. Her reactions to the pairings of her female relatives are some of the film's highest points. One wishes she had a subplot of her own, in order to see more of her.
The film is a slick looking package, full of gorgeous locations (the Hamptons, New York City and Paris) and sets (Erica's Hampton home interiors) and character defining costuming by Suzanne McCabe ("Everyone Says I Love You").
"Something's Gotta Give" isn't perfect, but its dream cast makes its flaws easy to ignore.
B+
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