tek's rating: ½

Something's Gotta Give (PG-13)
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Caution: potential spoilers.

Jack Nicholson plays Harry Sanborn, a wealthy 63-year-old guy who never dates women over 30. Nor has he ever been married (he's actually famous for being a bachelor). He's dated tons of women over the years, and currently he's involved with an auctioneer (from Christie's) named Marin (Amanda Peet). The two of them go to her mother's beach house in the Hamptons, expecting to be alone, but then Marin's mother, Erica (Diane Keaton), and aunt Zoe (Frances McDormand) unexpectedly show up. Harry wants to leave, but the four of them end up deciding to stay there together, after all. Then, while Harry and Marin are alone together, preparing to have sex for the first time, he has a heart attack. Once he gets out of the hospital, his doctor tells him he can't travel for awhile yet. So he has to stay at the beach house for a few days.

Erica is a famous playwright, who's struggling with her attempt to write a new play, and doesn't want the distraction of having Harry around, especially since the two of them don't really get along. But she has no choice, and the two of them spend a few days alone together (after Marin and Zoe both went back to the city). There's a great deal of awkwardness at first, but they soon start getting to like each other, much to both their surprise. He never thought he could be interested in someone her age, and he certainly never thought he could fall in love. And I get the impression that, even though she was married for 20 years before getting divorced (her ex-husband continues to direct all her plays), she never really experienced romantic love, either. Eventually, Marin visits and realizes what's developing between them, and decides to break up with Harry, so he and her mom would be free to pursue a relationship. However, things are complicated by the fact that Harry's doctor, Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves), is a big fan of Erica's plays... and despite his being younger than her, he's interested in her romantically.

And... like I said, things are complicated. Erica and Harry fall in love, but he doesn't really understand what he's feeling, and tries to go back to his old life, when he recovers. And she decides to turn the whole situation into a play, and gets involved with Julian. But... well, I don't want to say what happens in the end. It might be predictable, but at the same time... I never really felt like the "predictable" thing was a foregone conclusion. Anyway, it was a reasonably amusing movie, and I liked the characters well enough. Paris was mentioned several times throughout the movie, which might be a bit cliched in romantic movies, but I thought it worked nicely. (Clearly there were hints of "Casablanca" in the movie, though as of yet I've still never seen that movie.)


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