MINI MOVIE REVIEW:
A superb comedy written for adults and starring adults. A witty, sophisticated romp in the Hamptons and New York City by Nicholson and Keaton, who, even if they are playing their public personas, have a great time doing it. This movie is a comedic gem!
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MOVIE CRITIQUE:
I wonder where I can go to get Director and Screen Writer Nancy Meyers declared to be a National Treasure? She has written some of the smartest romantic comedies in recent years, including both "Father of the Bride" movies (1991 and 1995), "Baby Boom" (1987), and "Private Benjamin (1980).

Her writing is smart and sophisticated, her characters are well developed, and her movies are never mediocre or boring. And yet you can count on your one hand the number of movies that she has written and directed for the last two decades. It's a crime, actually, considering the junk that some male directors send us from Hollywood and yet they all seem to bounce back and get hired for another film project.

Nancy Meyer's "Something's Gotta Give" and Sophia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" are terrific arguments for the belated ascendancy of the female director in Hollywood. Maybe this is the year, as there have been several other breakthrough movies directed by women this year.

"Something's Gotta Give" is a cinematic delight as two old pros show the world how funny and charming they can be in trying to disprove the adage that sex is the province of the young and that older women can't be sexy. Diane Keaton looks absolutely smashing in this movie. She was young 31 years ago as the new Corleone wife in "The Godfather" (1972) and she looks even better today as a woman in her late fifties. The face may be lined with wrinkles but the interior shines with a womanly glow that is attractive even to men 20 years her junior, as is shown by the Keanu Reeves character in this movie.

In actuality, Jack Nicholson's character, music producer Harry Sanborn, claims to be 63 in this movie while Nicholson's real age is 66. So he is almost a decade older than Diane Keaton, but he looks like he is more than two decades older. Nicholson has not aged gracefully while Keaton most certainly has. I hate to say this, but Nicholson is no Cary Grant. Worse yet, he is overweight and almost looks too old for the vibrant and vivacious Keaton. The sad truth is that Nicholson had a more age appropriate partner in last year's "About Schmidt."

I remember the movie "Intolerable Cruelty" earlier this year being compared to the great screwball comedies of the Thirties and Forties. While good, that movie can't hold a comedic candle to "Something's gotta Give." THIS is the movie that is a wonderful recapitulation of a Forties Screwball comedy updated to the Twenty First Century.

Every character in this movie is perfectly cast. Amanda Peet shines as Keaton's daughter and Nicholson's initial love interest. Frances McDormand is a screen (and a scream!) delight as she steals every scene that she is in and leaves us wanting to see much more of her. She's so good that maybe she ought to try her hand at a romantic comedy.

Nicholson and Keaton are brilliant as the two combative characters who secretly grow to admire each other. Their on screen chemistry is nuanced and dead on. In short, this movie does a fabulous job convincing us that they are perfect for each other well before they realize this.

Nicholson does a brilliant job playing to type as an aging bad boy, man child who happens to be a wealthy music producer who has chased every young skirt that he has seen for the last 40 years. This is a big part of his on screen persona, and we know him, love him and even forgive him for this.

But it is Diane Keaton's role as Erica Barry that really elevates this movie. She is a successful Broadway producer who is initially appalled by Nicholson's sexual quest of her daughter, then she is flummoxed by her attraction to him, and, finally, she suffers the pangs of emotional torture as a woman who has given her heart to a man who represents the very symbol of male irresponsibility. She tries to be modern and sophisticated about it, but she has the rotten luck to have the heart of an old fashioned girl.

I will have to admit to two minor complaints with "Something's Gotta Give." This movie is rather long at just three minutes short of two hours, but the funny thing is that I can't think of any scenes that I would cut. And the wonderful Frances McDormand, as I have said, steals every scene that she is in as the sister of Keaton and my only wish is that there might have been more of her. I know this goes against the grain of my first complaint, but so be it. I thought for a moment that the doctor that Keanu Reeves plays might end up with her, but it was not meant to be. At least not in Nancy Meyers' play book.

There is one final comment that may or may not show a certain amount of male chauvinism on my part. We men easily accept the fact of an older man pairing with a younger woman, but we question the reverse. The questionable logic here is that an older man can preserve his youth and father (additional) heirs with a younger woman, but a younger man pairing with an older, post-menopausal woman will sacrifice the opportunity to father a genetic copy of himself.

This built in conceit on our part makes the endgame of Doctor Julian Mercer, played by Keanu Reeves, somewhat difficult for me to accept. There seemingly is little logic in the direction of their romance other than the fact that Dr. Mercer loves her plays and has seen all of them at least once. Of course, the fact that Erica Barry is still a very beautiful woman helps, but none of this makes a persuasive case for his wanting to marry her. An affair with a beautiful older woman would seem to be highly desirous, but his proposal of marriage to her strikes me as highly improbable. What can I say? This is how we men look at these things.
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MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
Famed and wealthy hip hop record producer, Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson), is the picture of contentment as he puffs on an expensive cigar on a sunny day while driving his convertible with the top down along a country lane in the Hamptons. Seated next to him is another very young and vibrantly sexy woman, Marin Barry (Amanda Peet), who is the latest fling in his 40 year history of chasing and bedding beautiful young women. Marin is sneaking him out to her mother's house on the beach in Long Island's exclusive East Hampton for a weekend of sun and sex.

Marin knows the rules. She is a sophisticated New Yorker and is in this for fun and sex only. Harry is great company to be with as he acts much younger than his 63 years, but he has never been married and he has a well deserved reputation for being a skirt chaser of any and every young thing. But she has to be beautiful and she must also be very young. Harry later confesses to his doctor that he has never seen a woman over 30 naked.

Harry remarks to Marin that her mother must be very rich as anything in this area of the Hamptons reeks of money. They pull in to a private driveway and an immense shingled beach front house looms in front of them. Marin teases him by pulling off some of her clothes and then they go inside to a home straight out of Architectural Digest. "This is the living room," she says, "but we won't be spending much time here."

Marin takes off to get into her bikini and Harry goes into the home's huge kitchen to get some refreshments out of the refrigerator. The back door to the home opens and Playwright Erica Barry (Diane Keaton) and her sister, Zoe Barry (Frances McDormand), enter to see a pair of strange feet behind the refrigerator door. "Call 911! Call 911!" they scream in panic, as Harry, shocked by the sudden commotion, slams the refrigerator door shut. The two women reach for a handy kitchen knife to go along with their cell phones.

Calm is soon restored but not a considerable sense of angst and disgust on Erica's part as Marin appears and verifies Harry's story that he really is in Erica's home at the invitation of her daughter. They uneasily discuss how to handle this rather indelicate situation. Should Erica and Zoe leave? Or Harry, or even Harry and Marin?

They decide to be adults about the matter and all agree to enjoy the home, hopefully separately,for what promises to be a lovely weekend. During dinner each feels out the other while the uptight and long divorced Erica can barely hide her disapproval at the thought of the almost elderly Harry sleeping with her young daughter.

Zoe is more open minded as she is a college professor in gender studies and sexual politics. She fully understands that this is the sad way of the world for older woman, especially intelligent older women, who seem to threaten men their own age. They sadly reflect that this is why the two of them have been without companionship for years while Erica's young daughter is now going out with a man almost three times her age.

A golden oldie Marvin Gaye record plays in the background implying that Harry is starting to make romantic overtures to Marin. The two lonely women sit there looking at each other wistfully in the spacious but rather austere kitchen. Then something really sweet happens as first Zoe and then Erica begin to recapture the glory days of their youth by moving to the melodic rock and roll tunes from the good old days when they were both young and wild and grooved to this music.

The music doesn't last. Marin screams for help and Zoe and Erica rush into her bedroom to find Harry lying prostrate on the floor bathed in sweat. Harry is rushed to the nearby clinic in the Hamptons and the very suave Doctor Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves) pronounces that he has a mild heart attack and can't be moved for several weeks.

Once again, Erica's good nature is put upon by the apparent necessity for Harry to recuperate back at her beach front home. Marin goes back to work in the City and Harry is left in the home alone with Erica. Harry fires his full time nurse upon his first seeing her because she is old and fat and ugly, which means that Erica will now personally have to tend to his daily needs.

Harry begins his slow recovery while Doctor Mercer has prohibited him from using his "Mr. Midnight" until he has enough strength to climb those stairs going down to the beach in front of the Hampton manse. Harry and Erica's initial antagonism begins to wear off as each begins to enjoy the company of the other.

Meanwhile, the young Dr. Mercer has ascertained that Harry's host is THE Erica Barry, the famous playwright and the author of the many plays that he has seen and enjoyed so much over the years. He invites her out to dinner for what she naively assumes will be a growing "friendship."

For Erica's part, her initial problems with writers' bloc in the composition of her new play begin to disappear as the absurdity of her situation, similar to that of the play, "The Man Who Came to Dinner," some 40 years before, inspires her to construct a play about about an uninvited and obnoxious house guest, a character who appears to be very thinly disguised from the real Harry Sanborn.