Something Gave

(Originally blogged in real time on my Weblog.)

I'm watching Something's Gotta Give right now, and really feeling alienated by it. I'm not entirely sure why. Nicholson and Keaton have great chemistry together, and certainly make a handsome couple. But there's something really off-putting about the film. I think it's the notion of watching 50 to 60-somethings act like 22 year olds. On the other hand, having read Hollywood, Interrupted this past weekend, it's pretty obvious that lots of 50 to 60 somethings act like 22 year olds there.

Comedies are either typically very broad farces, or they're about real people in wacky circumstances. Woody Allen's best films (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Play It Again Sam, (all of which starred Keaton, of course)) felt like they were about believable people. Neither of these characters felt much like real middle age people to me.

And then there's the usual Hollywood anti-smoking stuff--and the French music (and ultimately, a trip to Paris itself), in a film that was probably being shot while we fighting Saddam in Iraq and being screwed by his French allies. (Films make their money in the flyover country of America's "Red States". I wonder how the filmmakers thought these scenes would play there.) And Keanu Reeves as a doctor? "Whoa--stat!"

James Bowman was also turned off by the film, but for rather different reasons: he finds it disturbing watching wrinkled people make love. I don't necessarily mind that myself--I'd actually like to see a film about mature grown-ups having adult relationships.

But mature, adult, and grown-up are sadly what's missing from this film. And from most films these days.

UPDATE: OK, film's over. My wife and I talked about it, and came to the conclusion that it's not the PC of the film, it's the crappy writing. We found plot holes you cold drive Nicholson's Mercedes roadster through, and couldn't remember one funny line after the film was over. Whereas the Woody films I listed above all have great catch phrases, snappy dialogue, and (other than Bogie appearing in Woody's bedroom in Play It Again Sam) reasonably believable plots and characters.

Article Author: Ed Driscoll

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