Silly Thinking

Welcome to Movielog with Jim Farris.


Today's feature review: "Something's Gotta Give".

Sometimes that misused and under appreciated phrase “star power” can make a movie.

That is exactly what happened with “Something’s Gotta Give”. Bland but bankable writer director Nancy Meyers (“Father of The Bride” I and II) can get a movie made. She won’t spend too much, won’t disagree, and delivers a marketable quantity that studios love. Why? Because they know how to advertise a simple comedy. More and more, studios make “marketable product” as opposed to movies and Meyers delivers cinematic ketchup or soup every time.

As in the past with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton, she also knows to bring talented friends to please the audience.

Here, she hit the jackpot, or won the lottery, or whatever tired phrase you like.



In the thin supporting roles she got an Oscar winning best actress to make faces and slap butts. The star of the Cohen Brothers masterpiece “Fargo”, Francis McDormand, has four scenes and precious little to do but does it very well. McDormand could have handled the lead role perfectly, but is left with a few wise cracks and reactions and she is perfect as the befuddled lead’s foil.


In the second male lead, a boring serious young doctor, she got “Matrix” superstar Keanu Reeves who does more with this nothing role than is on the page. I’m sure he wanted to work with the two actual stars of this picture and took a cut in pay to do it. Who wouldn’t?

As the divorced playwright and old rascal bachelor Myers hired Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. These two are simply perfect to watch and this movie proves that they don’t need much to be great. Nicholson is somehow improving and Diane Keaton, like Katharine Hepburn before her, is the best at battle of the sexes comedy. It is a joy to watch them float, leap, mug, and cavort threw this lighter than air fluff that is reminiscent of the Doris Day - Rock Hudson romantic comedies of the 60’s.


That’s not all good. Those comedies are mis-remembered these days because two of them are classics (“Pillow Talk” and I can’t remember the other one). But most like “The Thrill Of It All” or “Send Me No Flowers” are by and large forgettable fare and some like “Caprice” or “The Glass Bottom Boat” are down right embarrassing.

This film hits in the mid range of those Doris - Rock pictures and has lots of very funny situations and a lot of laugh out loud jokes. But the story is creaky and it’s too long (a two hour and eight minute comedy is way to long. Keaton should have called an unbankable, box office poison friend of her’s named Woody Allen to council Myers on length.)


The movie is nice to look at, but, this is the whitest show I’ve seen in a long time. These are rich white people living in a creme colored world with antiques and paintings and big windows and nice views of the ocean… everywhere. They eat in nice upscale white restaurants and go to Paris on a whim. After the revolution these people should die, long painful deaths.

But that probably won’t happen. Who could kill Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson? No one. And if they could, after the revolution they should be killed. But what am I saying? There is no revolution. Who wants to revolt when we all have nice big crème colored houses and cars and antiques and romance and walks on our private beaches, and expensive fresh fruit to eat all the time?

Come on, cheer up. Being rich isn’t about greed and suppressing people and voting republican.
It’s fun fun fun. And romantic.