Something’s Gotta Give

Posted by Greg

November 11, 2007

Giving It Your All

**** out of *****

Imagine if you will, your job. Some of us love it, some of us hate it, but most of us just deal with it. Now imagine that you could show up to work and create a daily list of things to do that you absolutely didn’t mind doing. Imagine how great it would be to go to work and pick and choose what you wanted to do and have everyone go “Wow, great job!” That’s what it must be like for Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton at this point in their career. They’ve proven themselves many times over and now have the luxury of picking and choosing projects purely for the joy of doing them, the lucky sods.

It’s been said that comedy is the hardest thing to do in the acting profession - no amount of digital wizardry or fancy lighting effects can turn a humor simpleton into a paragon of timing and delivery, so it’s lucky for us that both Nicholson and Keaton are two masters at the top of their game.

Something’s Gotta Give plays a fun little game with the audience, and that is that it uses Jack Nicholson to poke fun at… Jack Nicholson. His habit of dating much younger women is well known the world over, so it was a nice bit of casting to hire him to play Harry Sanborn, a successful older guy who has a habit of dating girls young enough to be his young daughter. “I kept getting older, but they just stayed the same age,” he says. When he and his girlfriend Marin (Amanda Peet, looking like she just stepped out of a Zit-Away commercial) come up to the Hamptons one weekend to spend an amorous few days at her mothers house, they don’t count on Marin’s Mom Erica (Keaton) still being there. They reach a compromise and it’s decided that for such a big house, it’d be no problem for everyone to stay there.

But after the busy couple start fooling around one night, Harry has a small heart attack which lands him in the hospital with strict orders from his doctor (Keanu Reeves) to stay close and relax for a few days. With nowhere else to go, he moves into Erica’s house, which doesn’t sit too well with her, as she’s made it quite apparent that she’s not a fan of Harry’s spinster-like lifestyle. It’s at this point that the movie really starts to shine.

Like Robert DeNiro, Nicholson has discovered rather late in his career that he’s got quite the knack for comic timing. Not afraid to make a fool of himself, Jack uses that timing to great effect, his character not quite sure what to make of the only woman who has ever given him a true challenge. With tousled hair and an oft-confused look which suggests at times that he’s channeling Hugh Grant, he delivers his lines with a twinkle in his eye and a smirk that only Jack could get away with, offering up a perfectly timed performance. The other thing that makes him such a delight to watch is that he’s clearly not averse to playing up the fact that at 66 years old, he’s not the limber, energetic young buck he once was. It’s a very funny and honest performance.

The only thing that might bring a bigger smile to your face than Jack is Diane Keaton’s wonderful, Oscar nominated performance. She’s absolutely radiant in this role, showing superb elegance as a woman who’s come to grips with the fact that she, too, isn’t the stunning young creature she used to be, but still has brains and style to spare. It’s a very nuanced and charismatic performance, wonderfully done.

Things start to get a bit complicated though when the two unwilling housemates start to open up to each other, let their defenses down and slowly come to realize that the one thing they’ve convinced themselves they don’t want is the one thing they just might need. But Erica soon finds herself between a rock and a hard place when Dr. Mercer (Reeves) asks her out; suddenly she’s in the kind of situation that no one likes to be caught in. When it rains, it pours.

The supporting cast also does an excellent job in bringing the story to life. Frances McDormand is very funny in a small role as Erica’s sister, and Keanu Reeves shows a refreshing spark of life behind his normally numb disposition. Maybe it’s because he’s not wearing any sunglasses this time around.

It’s always a pleasure to watch a film being directed by the person who also wrote the script. Nancy Meyers has created these characters from the ground up and knows them well, imbuing them with quirky mannerisms in funny situations that ring very true to life. The film manages to gingerly broach the seldom covered area of elderly romance without becoming creepy, which is not a small task - who wants to see people as old as their grandparents make out? But with some deft direction and filtered through the formidable acting chops of the two leads, Something’s Gotta Give manages to have one of the funniest and sweetest sex scenes I’ve seen in a long time. And I defy you not to laugh at the sight of a doped-up Nicholson running around in a hospital gown with his ass hanging out for all to see.

For the most part, the movie is remarkably well-paced, with a surprising number of laugh-out-loud moments. My only complaint is that the last 30 minutes pass by rather humorlessly, with the laughs coming few and far between. They could have shaved about 10 minutes off the total running time to make a tighter film overall, but now I’m just nitpicking.

A great film with performances that are just a pleasure to watch and enough laugh out loud moments to keep a smile firmly planted on your face. Also, stay about 5 minutes into the credits to hear Jack himself sing a rendition of ‘La Vie en Rose’.

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