There’s a long-standing double standard in romantic movies. Pairing an older man with an older woman is okay; so is pairing an older man with a young woman. But never, under any circumstances, must an older woman be paired with a young man. Something’s Gotta Give, the latest trifle from light-comedy specialist Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, The Parent Trap), playfully flirts with that old convention, but in the end it’s only a tease.
Jack Nicholson, who knows a thing or two about older guys with younger women, plays a 63-year-old hip-hop mogul named Harry Sanborn. Harry is notorious for never dating women over 30; apparently, his taste in women runs to the same demographic as his taste in music. Keaton is Erica Barry, a successful playwright whose daughter Marin (Amanda Peet) is Harry’s latest fling. First, a bit of mother-daughter miscommunication throws Harry and Marin to-gether with Erica and her feminist sister (an oddly out-of-place Frances McDormand) in Erica’s beach house for a weekend. Then Harry has a heart attack while fooling around with Marin, and ends up housebound with the ladies on doctor’s orders. Keanu Reeves, unconvincingly playing the doctor, is on hand to fall for Erica and provide a May-September counterpoint to the Harry-Marin relationship. Naturally, Harry and Erica have little use for one another, which in rom-com terms means they’re destined to end up together.
It’s no coincidence that the title is reminiscent of another recent Jack Nicholson film, because anyone who has seen As Good as It Gets will be instantly familiar with the routine here. Nicholson is the crass-but-somehow-lovable bastard who says something nice just often enough to pierce through Keaton’s emotional armour, only to break her heart by saying something stupid. Repeat as necessary.
The film will likely be talked about mainly for a nearly full-frontal shot of Keaton, but what it really has going for it is smart, well-written dialogue and easy chemistry between old pros Jack and Diane. Their scenes together are talky and touching in ways that boomers sick of teen-oriented trash will appreciate. (This even applies to a couple of instant-messaging banter scenes that would otherwise be intolerable.) In fact, a lot of the jokes hinge on how old Nicholson and Keaton are; in one hilarious bedroom scene, most of the groping is for eyeglasses. When these two remarkably charismatic actors share the screen, the film shows flashes of how good it could have been.
But the enjoyable conversation and witty scenes are inevitably undermined by bits of overdone silliness like Harry’s chronic chest pains (it’s just love, dontcha know), or a Keaton crying-jag montage that goes on far too long. A romantic comedy can be funny without being zany, but Meyers never gives this one the chance. By Harry’s third trip to the emergency room with love pangs, the something that’s gotta give will probably be your patience.
(2/4)