Posted: 12/11/2003

Something’s Gotta Give

(2003)

by Hank Yuloff

A love story that works for the mature audience.

Earlier this year in Anger Management, audiences were excited to see Jack Nicholson in a role that could utilize his talents as a crazy man about to explode. The trailers harkened back to the movie The Shining. He has cultivated that persona in other movies - A Few Good Men, The Witches of Eastwick, Wolf, As Good As It Gets, etc. Too bad he had an inferior actor to work with. Jack may have been Jack, but it wasn’t enough to pull off a recommendable movie.

In Something’s Gotta Give, Jack is all grown up at 66, playing a character of 62 and less ready to pop. The persona is a little more cultivated. The wolf has some grey hairs but it is still going after the young girl wolves. It is still, after all, Jack. And this time, he has a great cast to play with.

Jack is Harry Langer. Lifelong bachelor. Owns a rap/hip hop record label and several other companies. He is wealthy and enjoys all that that affords him - mainly women. He never dates anyone over 30. The movie begins with him and his current twenty-something flavor of the month, Marin Barry (Amanda Peet) heading off to her mother’s supposedly empty beach house for their first sleep over party. Just as they get things going, though, her mom Erica Barry (Diane Keaton) and aunt Zoe (Frances McDormand) make an unexpected arrival at the house.

Making the best of a difficult situation, the four people decide to share the house for the weekend. It is during their first dinner together that we truly learn about Harry’s checkered dating past. The men in the audience gave him a standing ovation. The women sneered. After dinner, when Harry and Marin begin to ….. relax, Harry has a mild heart attack and is rushed to the hospital where we meet the final main character in the movie - Dr. Julian (Keanu Reeves), the young heartthrob doctor who immediately falls for Erica. The women cheered while the men snickered. But we have our three sided love triangle (Harry, Erica, Dr. J) and can now get on with the guy thinks he likes girl, guy loses girl and realizes he made a mistake, guy goes back after girl formula.

There is a lot of humor in this movie. It is also a love story. A lot of the laughing in the audience had a markedly female tenor. Harry may be suave, but he is getting older and there are definite chinks in the armor. The story made me think of this year’s Alex and Emma but the romance, humor and acting were far better. It is a great date flick for everyone out of the college years. I don’t think most of the women Harry dated would appreciate the blossoming love stories as much as anyone over 30. What made it even better is that all the best lines are not in the trailer.

The love making scenes between Erica and Harry are pretty detailed - without the nudity - and go on for a lot longer than in most movies. Director Nancy Meyers (What Women Want) didn’t use the formulaic fades from scene to scene with music overlays. Instead, she went with long cuts, during which we actually listen to what the couples are saying. I found myself both uncomfortable with the age of the participants and brought more into the story because of the conversation they were having.

The actors in Something’s Gotta Give are excellent. Jack is Jack. Always great and fun to watch. But he didn’t have too much stretching to do here. Keaton (aged 57, playing 55) is excellent as the playwright Erica Barry who takes from her real life troubles with Harry to write a hit play. My one hatred of this movie comes from Keaton. When her heart is broken we endure several minutes of her writing while crying. And it is not boohoo kind of crying but way to over the top bawling. McDormand (Fargo, Almost Famous) is great in her supporting role as the sister/aunt. And when Peet (Whole Nine Yards, Igby Goes Down, Saving Silverman) is on the screen, her smile is devastating.

If you had the opportunity to make a double feature of love stories from 2003, I would suggest that you see Something’s Gotta Give along with Love, Actually. Both films are on my tops list for the year and are well worth the price of admission for an enjoyable time at the movieplex.

Hank Yuloff was glad to see Jack in a movie where he shined. But instead of Nicholson’s naked butt, he would have preferred Peet’s naked anything.

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