Another legend left us in the past month. Diane Keaton was always memorable in any role she played – from the fun loving ingenues of the 1970s to wizened older women she inhabited later in life. Any other person would probably write about Annie Hall, but since I hate HATE HATE Woody Allen movies, I prefer to walk through some lighter fare, specifically Something’s Gotta Give (2003, dir. Nancy Meyers).
Something’s Gotta Give is the story of Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson), a wealthy New Yorker with a penchant for dating younger women. In this instance, his younger woman is Marin Klein (Amanda Peet), whose mother Erica Barry (Keaton) unexpectedly arrives at her own house in the Hamptons, surprising Harry and Marin. Harry ends up having a heart attack and needs to stay nearby…which means crashing at Erica’s house. Marin heads back to the city to work and now you have the perfect set-up for a romantic comedy.
How you get there is admittedly quite convenient, but what you end up being left with is a significant amount of screen time with two film legends leading the way. That is not a terrible thing. It is vintage Nicholson – charming despite being objectively a bad person with, in this case, the added years of experience enhancing both aspects of that characterization. You also get the best performance of the back half of Keaton’s career – a complete person (as opposed to a genre trope) who happens to be feeling some giddiness about a new relationship. Because of the strength of these two performances, the film rises above the many thousands of rom coms that are instantly forgettable.
The problem is that we have other characters in the story. None of them feel like a fit for the story being told. Peet is all too easygoing about her mom stealing her boyfriend, even though she protests that is because she knew it was not going anyway. Keanu Reeves as the cardiologist who has a crush on Erica comes across as Reeves often does – unimpressive. Every other character is treated as unimportantly as their screen time foretells. It makes me long to see the stage adaptation of the story that Keaton’s playwright character is working on throughout the film.
It is not an amazing film, but it scratches an itch for the romantic comedy without generating a plot that you may be confused is from a similar romantic comedy. I would argue there are not too many similar romantic comedies in existence, even though this did seem to spur a sub-genre of grey-haired rom-com attempts. None has the charm nor the leading players’ charisma as this one, which helps it rise above the trash heap of those that would come afterwards. If you are still a person who channel surfs, this will pop up one day. If you catch it before Harry is well enough to be back in New York, give it some time. I imagine you will be happier at the end.
FUN FACT – There was a film in the works in 1962 of the same title, starring Marilyn Monroe. Monroe, known for being incredibly difficult on set, was eventually fired from the project and died shortly thereafter. The film was later finished under the title Move Over, Darling, starring Doris Day instead.
Just Watch says that Something’s Gotta Give is currently streaming on Hulu. It is also available for rent/purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Fandango.
As a reminder, here is the original post that details the scores and weighting system.