"Erica, you are a woman to love."
— Harry Sanborn
Something's Gotta Give is a 2003 romantic comedy movie written and directed by Nancy Meyers, and starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures in North America and Warner Bros. Pictures internationally.
Nicholson plays Harry Sanborn, an aged music industry exec with a fondness for younger women like Marin, his latest trophy girlfriend. Things get a little awkward when Harry suffers a heart attack at the home of Marin's playwright mother Erica, played by Keaton. Left in the care of Erica and his young doctor Julian, played by Keanu Reeves, a love triangle starts to take shape between the three.
Not to be confused with Something's Got to Give, the unfinished 1962 film starring Marilyn Monroe.
This work features examples of:
- Celeb Crush: Julian is an avid admirer of Erica's plays and is utterly smitten upon meeting her and discovering her identity
- Commitment Issues: The reason Harry dates younger women. Erica discovers this the hard way.
- Cool Old Guy: Harry, an aging playboy who owns a hip-hop record label.
- Cool Old Lady: Erica, an aging playwright with a serious snarky streak.
- Dirty Old Man: Harry is a 63-year-old playboy who only dates women under 30... until he meets Erica.
- Embarrassing Hospital Gown: Erica, Marin, and Zoe are waiting in the hospital hall after Harry's heart attack when he suddenly wanders into the hallway wearing only a backless hospital gown and acting loopy due to all the drugs in his system. He ends up walking in circles and flashing his bare butt to the women (and the audience) many times, much to their annoyance.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Marin and Harry are getting frisky in her room when Harry has a heart attack.
- Likes Older Men: One of the plot devices is that Jack Nicholson's character was dating a woman half his age.
- Manly Tears: Harry hilariously sheds some after he and Erica have sex for the first time. He notes that it's out of the norm for him.
- Married to the Job: It's implied that this is why Erica is divorced and why she has never remarried or found another long-term relationship.
- May–December Romance: Harry, 63 and Marin, 29. Erica is implied to be in her mid-fifties, while her second love interest Julian is 36.
- Naked People Are Funny: Harry in the hospital. Also Harry accidentally coming across a fully naked (and full-frontal) Erica while trying to find the kitchen.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Harry is the owner of the second-largest hip-hop label in the world.
- Romantic Runnerup: Julian doesn't get the girl. Sad Keanu, indeed.
- Sex Equals Love: Although Erica and Harry start to develop feelings for one another early on, they don't properly fall in love until they have sex.
