Something's Gotta Give

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The moments between the characters are absolutely full. It's a pleasure to watch such consummate professionals.

USA Today Mike Clark

But let's not mislead about acting gold: Without Nicholson and Keaton, the movie would be fair. With them, it's one of the few good romantic comedies this year. What we gotta give is thanks.

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

But let's not mislead about acting gold: Without Nicholson and Keaton, the movie would be fair. With them, it's one of the few good romantic comedies this year. What we gotta give is thanks.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

[Keaton and Nicholson] bring so much experience, knowledge and humor to their characters that the film works in ways the screenplay might not have even hoped for.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Its script is sharp, its dialogue is acerbic, its stars could hardly be better and, in its more sparkling moments, it exudes some of the flavor and charm of the later Hepburn-Tracy comedies.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Every moment spent in the company of Keaton... is such a joy that the whole is more delightful than the sum of the formulaic ingredients. Keaton makes Nicholson bounce the way Shirley MacLaine once did in ''Terms of Endearment.''

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Nobody else working in movies today can make her (Keaton) own misery such a source of delight or make the spectacle of utter embarrassment look like a higher form of dignity.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Diane Keaton has the crucial role, and she makes the most of it.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Generally quite amusing, with a brilliant cast.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are so good in Something's Gotta Give, it's a shame writer-director Nancy Meyers couldn't rein herself in a little more.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

With the likes of Nicholson, Keaton, Reeves and Peet -- and a fleeting, funny few minutes with McDormand -- Something's Gotta Give is never less than entertaining. And once in a while it's sweetly, and extremely, funny.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Movies like this are meant to amuse and entertain, though, not instruct. Meyers's latest is worth seeing for its offbeat story, its tantalizing settings, and most of all, its spot-on acting, especially by Keaton and Nicholson.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Doesn't always sizzle, but its stars do.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It's wise, funny, honest right up to its last sadly dishonest scene, doesn't mock us more than we deserve and offers attractive women in various stages of undress.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

In an era of dumb farce, Something's Gotta Give is something special.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film also does something quite remarkable for an American film: It makes middle-age love look sexy and hugely satisfying.

Variety Scott Foundas

Jokes about impotence, menopause and other middle-aged maladies reside where a screenplay ought to live.

Newsweek David Ansen

The movie, which ricochets between farce and poignancy, casts just enough romantic pixie dust to leave you smiling. It's certainly not the last word on the subject, but it's an amiable start.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Stumbles in miscalculating how far it needs to go to make this particular romance convincing when, as another romantic comedy character put it, it had us from hello.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It is a well written, nicely acted and smoothly directed battle of the sexes.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It is a well written, nicely acted and smoothly directed battle of the sexes.

Slate David Edelstein

I love Nicholson here because he lets Keaton take the movie--and his relative reticence is very attractive.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Mostly, it's just a pleasure to watch Keaton and Nicholson learning new steps in an old dance, stumbling to grab at happiness before it's too late.

Film Threat

A sweet and fresh comedy that was a joy to watch.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

In the end I didn't believe in their relationship, but I was pleased to see Keaton tearing it up for two hours.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

As cinema, it's polenta, but it's made palatable by the piquant sauce with which these two great stars season it.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

[Keaton's] lost none of the spunk, sass, and ditzbomb charm of her "Annie Hall" days. She, quite simply, is marvelous. Too bad her similarly iconic co-star is such a toad. Jack never stops being Jack, to great distraction.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Doesn't America's 50-and-fabulous set deserve better than a movie this superficial and pandering?

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Despite the weak dialogue, there are still some laughs to be had. At the end of this long journey, we're rooting for Harry and Erica to be together. For the movie to get us to that point, regardless of its motives and methods, it can't be all bad.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's hard to imagine anyone other than Keaton pulling this off.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Keaton's overamped girlishness, and the adolescent shenanigans she engages in, make a mockery of this overlong romantic comedy's stance as a celebration of mature love.

Premiere Sara Brady

Frances McDormand, as Erica’s younger sister, flourishes in her few minutes of screen time. She’s flinty, ferocious, and purely hysterical.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's a glossy, somewhat condescending comedy, with all the substance of a cone of soft vanilla ice cream.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Even in a piffle like Something’s Gotta Give, Keaton reminds us of her uncanny ability to inhabit her characters' knockabout emotions.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

As a date-night movie for women of 50 or thereabouts, chances are it'll do the trick.

The New Yorker David Denby

Harmless, but it gave me a pain. Why make such a fuss over middle-aged bodies anyway? [22 & 29 December 2003, p. 166]

Empire Alan Morrison

It also takes too long in the final act to write itself out of its plot entanglements, and ends up looking rather too pleased with itself.

TV Guide Ethan Alter

A whiz at crafting conventional Hollywood screenplays, Meyers's direction is overreliant on close-ups and medium shots; there's no life to any of the images. Still, the film coasts along smoothly on the charisma of its stars.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

If the lines in the script were as keenly etched as the ones in her face, Keaton would have had something to work with. Instead, during an especially lovelorn sequence, she's asked to indulge in a crying montage so painfully extended that it has us in tears too -- weeping from embarrassment for her.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Irritatingly moralistic romantic comedy.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Jack, the actor, smiles obligingly, but you can practically feel him rolling his eyes.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Something does have to give, and that's the nine-figure public patronage of this kind of anemic, wit-free entertainment. Meyers's shakin' moneymaker isn't the worst film of 2003 -- no cat suits, for one thing -- but something scarier: a standard-issue bog of glossy idiocy and audience disrespect.