This Jack Nicholson/Diane Keaton movie was good, really good; I’d say it even had a chance to be on some all-time top romantic comedy lists but missed by just a bit. Nicholson plays his public personna: the wealthy ultimate womanizing bachelor still dating under 30 beauties at 63, with the concept of commitment and relationship utterly foreign to him. Keaton plays a mid-50s-ish divorcee, a leading playwright who’s given up on finding someone to shop at her store (to paraphrase one of her lines).
Nancy Meyers has a history with romantic comedies–Father of the Bride, Baby Boom, What Women Want–so Something’s Gotta Give doesn’t come out of the blue but she’s certainly taken her game to another level since divorcing former writing/producing partner Charles Shyer prior to Women. While I’ve no reason to believe that this is autobiographical, one can easily draw a line from her circumstances, throw in demonstrable creativity and get a character in Keaton’s Erica that Meyers understands. And being a longtime Hollywood professional, she’s surely met many men like Nicholson’s Harry Sanborn!
As I said, this is almost an all-timer, which certainly makes me happy to have spent $15 for two tickets. The plotting is believable and the way we get to the (admittedly inevitable) ending has unpredictable twists, the characters feel real and developed, the dialog is funny and crisp. The main supporting roles are done well too: Keanu Reeves in his first post-Matrix role as Nicholson’s doctor and a much younger man who falls for Keaton, Amanda Peet as Keaton’s daughter and Nicholson’s original romantic interest, and Frances McDormand plays the encouraging, snarky, intelligent sister who pushes Keaton to remember that life is for the living.
So what quibbles did I find that make me say Something’s Gotta Give is almost but not quite great? There are three main reasons. First, towards the end after what is the first false ending (when Harry comes to the rehearsal of Erica’s new play), Meyers simply skips the action ahead six months and this feels artificial and out of step with the rest of the movie. Second, Peet’s character is the only one that doesn’t feel real and in the second half seems written simply to support the plot rather than organically do the job. Last, I wonder why there isn’t a single less than beautiful person in the entire movie–the closest is a somewhat chunky Jon Favreau in a cameo as Nicholson’s chief assistant–and I see this a true flaw in a movie which argues, at its core, that model-style beauty isn’t necessary for love. Even so, where a classic would rank above 95 on a scale of 100, I’d rate Something at 90±2.
Surely recommended
BillSaysThis 