Something's Gotta Give

Nancy Meyers wrote and directed this, and the age gap runs in both directions. Harry, 63, owns a record label and dates only women under 30. After his heart attack he is nursed by Erica, a playwright, and the man pursuing her is Harry’s own doctor, a good deal younger than she is. The same arithmetic is a scandal on one side and romance on the other; that double standard is the subject. Erica’s sister Zoe, a women’s studies professor at Columbia, says it out loud. Erica then cries for weeks and turns the affair into a play. It is a hit, and Harry walks into a rehearsal to learn his character dies. What she gains is not the relationship but the work. Michael Ballhaus shot it, the cinematographer of Fassbinder and Scorsese, with credits including Goodfellas and Gangs of New York, photographing a Hamptons comedy. Diane Keaton won best actress in a musical or comedy at the 61st Golden Globes, took the National Board of Review prize and was nominated for the Academy Award. Jack Nicholson was nominated for the Globe. A good fit if you want the age gap counted both ways and the firmest gain given to the woman’s career. Not for anyone who wants the choice settled long before Paris; the film keeps reopening it.