Something’s Gotta Give

An Elders’ Foreplay

The Story:

Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson) is a perennial bachelor who only dates women under the age of thirty. On what was to have been a romantic weekend with his latest infatuation, Marin (Amanda Peet), at her mother’s Hamptons beach house, Harry develops chest pains. Marin’s mother Erica Barry (Diane Keaton), a successful, divorced playwright, reluctantly agrees to help nurse him back to health.

Once they are alone together, Harry is surprised to find himself drawn to Erica for all the right reasons. And despite her initial protestations about Harry, Erica finds herself rediscovering love. Romantic complications arise when Erica is also pursued by Harry’s charming 30-something doctor, Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves). Once recovered, Harry returns home and goes back to his old ways. However, when his feelings for Erica prove to be life altering, Harry must undergo a true change of heart–if he is to win her back.

Release Date: December 12, 2003 (wide)
Distributor: Columbia Pictures (North America), Warner Bros. (International)
Directed by: Nancy Meyers (The Parent Trap, What Women Want, It’s Complicated)
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Frances McDormand, Amanda Peet, Jon Favreau
Budget: $60,000,000
Gross Revenue: $266,728,738 (worldwide), $124,590,960 (US)

Review:

As the other rom-com genre, there is nothing special in Something’s Gotta Give’s main plot. The story begin with Harry Sanborn which is currently dating Marin, planned to spend a weekend together in Marin mother’s beach house. Unfortunately, at the same time Marin’s mother, Erika Barry, also having a plan to finished her writing in the house.

When Harry having a mild heart-attack, his handsome doctor, Julian, suggested Harry to stay in the beach house for couple of days so he can monitors Harry’s condition. Because Marin has to go back to the city for work, Harry is left with Erica. The 60-something bachelor who never dates any woman above 30, found himself attracted to the 50-something Erica, and vice versa.

Although it’s rather uncommon to seeing a romance comedy with the elders as the main characters, there’s nothing really new in this film’s story. We have seen many similar movies where the protagonists never believe in love, then suddenly fall in love, then afraid to get too attached to someone and drive themselves away from each other, to finally realized how they actually can’t live without each other. Oh sorry, was that a spoiler? Well, not actually, because you will always able to guessing the story until the ending without any difficulty.

Then, what makes this movie special? There are two reasons; Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. Both of the veterans played their part very well. Their chemistry is well built, especially in the scene where they spent their time together in bed (the bed looks very comfortable, which remains me about the  memory foam mattress that I want to buy).

Harry (Jack Nicholson) although looks very old and fragile with his heart-attack, is also very charming that you won’t questioning why young girls are so attracted to him (besides the fact that he’s damn rich, of course).

Erica (Diane Keaton) looks cold on the outside, but when someone’s can get close to her, she’s funny and warm-hearted person. Plus, you won’t get another chance to see Diana Keaton nude in her 50′s (she was 56 when starred in this movie), just a glimpse, but it was good. No wonder she can attracts the young doctor, Julian (Keanu Reeves), which more than 20 years younger than her.

For their performances, Keaton received a Golden Globe, a Satellite Award as well as an Academy Award nomination for “Best Actress”. While Nicholson also received a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy”.

My Rating: B+

IMDb user rating: 6.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes meter: 71%

Metacritic:66/100

Yahoo! critics: B

Yahoo! users: B

Your Rating: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Note that ratings and gross revenue are based from when this review was written, so the values might already changed by now.