Mixing sloppy sentiment with impotent Viagra gags, "Something's Gotta Give" highlights Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson), a success in business whose ten companies include the #2-rated hip-hop label, now dating the luscious Marin (Amanda Peet). As they enter the beach house owned by Marin's mom, Erica Barry (Diane Keaton) for their first assignation, Harry is caught with his pants down by Erica and her articulate sister Zoe (Frances McDormand), who mistake him for a burglar. Suffering a mild heart attack which is treated by a handsome cardiologist, Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves), Harry is surprised to discover that he is increasingly attracted to the woman who is just years young than he and must compete for her while the very physician who has healed his heart may be breaking it by competing for playwright Erica's affection.

While feminists are occasionally appalled at stories that feature aging would-be Lotharios proudly escorting pliant babes, "Something's Gotta Give" does offer a rejoinder. The middle- aged woman, a successful writer who has several Broadway plays to her credit, is found wildly attractive by a man twenty-five years her junior, while the sixty-something Casanova is prepared to toss his collection of phone books into the Seine in his desire for the mother of his most recent date.

This talky and tedious tale of trysts and trophies gives Diane Keaton a less-than-thankful role, that of a woman eager to court theater audience laughter through her periods of excessive laughter and infantile sobs. "Something's Gotta Give" is that unusual entry during the month of December in which a studio should be expected to court end-year awards. Writer-director Nancy Meyers comes up with a conventional, mirth-challenged comedy.