Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton and Frances McDormand star with Keanu Reeves and Amanda Peet in a sophisticated romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give, from writer / director Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, The Parent Trap), which proves that in matters of the heart, you can expect the unexpected.
Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson) is a perennial bachelor who only dates women under the age of 30. 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.
Throughout her remarkable—and remarkably successful—two decade long career as a screenwriter and, now, director, Nancy Meyers has insightfully dissected the contemporary struggles between men and women. In an era when movies often sacrifice credible relationships in favor of technological wizardry, Meyers’ films remain focused on how human beings relate to each other in love and family. Something’s Gotta Give continues this tradition and expands on it.
“Pretty much everything I’ve written has paralleled something in my own life,” notes the filmmaker. “I must confess that I’m a little fascinated with the older-man-younger-woman scenario. “The other thing that interested me,” Meyers continues, “was in a way the opposite of all that: Falling in love and emotionally opening up later in life. I just think that people falling in love late in life is as real and powerful as it is when they’re 25.”
Read the Full Production Notes
Directed by: Nancy Meyers
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Amanda Peet, Frances McDormand, Jon Favreau, Paul Michael Glaser, Rachel Ticotin
Screenplay by: Nancy Meyers
Production Design by: Jon Hutman
Cinematography by: Michael Ballhaus
Film Editing by: Joe Hutshing
Costume Design by: Suzanne McCabe
Set Decoration by: Beth A. Rubino
Music by: Hans Zimmer
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, brief nudity and strong language.
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: December 12, 2003
