Something's Gotta Give

'The most successful female playwright since Lillian Hellman,' Erica Barry (Keaton) is divorced, single and then some. She's less than tickled to find her daughter is dating inveterate bachelor Harry Sanborn (Nicholson), and frankly horrified when Harry has a heart attack in her Long Island beach house, and the doctor orders him to rest up and recuperate right there. On the other hand, at least the doc is seriously dishy (Reeves). The third film in less than a year to address the sexuality of the older woman (after Calendar Girls and The Mother), Something's Gotta Give plays Erica's hang-ups about her body for broad laughs, but allows her to get off with two desirable men three decades apart without bringing the house down on her head. In fact, the sex scene with Harry is genuinely funny (they stop to check his blood pressure), sexy (she has him take scissors to her turtleneck) and finally, moving (she cries; he cries). The movie also takes equal opportunity potshots at Harry's reliance on Viagra, his vanity and Mr Nicholson's saggy posterior. Probably not a coincidence that, unlike the British films, this was written and directed by a woman - it's Meyers' first solo credit since divorcing her longtime partner Charles Meyers. No, the movie never aspires to anything more than light entertainment, and yes, Meyers runs around in ever decreasing circles in the laborious last act, but it's a pleasure to watch Nicholson confidently guying his own image like this, and delightful to have Diane Keaton back, still beautiful, still throwing rhythm around like confetti.