Cast: Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Keanu reeves, Amanda Peet, Frances McDormand, Jon Faverau

Written And directed By: Nancy Meyers

Release year: 2003

128 minutes

*Audio Description note: I watched in direct response to the passing of Diane Keaton. The Audio description project did not list this as having audio description on a streaming service at the time, and I already own the film on DVD(

What Is it?” Hoping to get away for the weekend, a perpetual bachelor (Nicholson) and his much younger girlfriend (Peet) head to a beach home believing it is not in use. But, when her mom (Keaton) shows up, an established playwright looking to finish her next play, she throws a wrench in the plans, made worse when he has a heart attack, and his doctor (Reeves) says he needs rest and isn’t cleared for travel. Soon, the daughter exits the scene, leaving two people together who couldn’t have anything less in common. Or, do they?

What Works: one of my favorite films of all time, and certainly my favorite Diane Keaton project. Between this and the first Wives Club, I’d have a hard time picking or ranking one over the other, but they are both coming to my desert island. I acknowledge Keaton also has some technically perfect films like The Godfather, the godfather part II, and Annie hall, but the most rewatchable films of hers for me are this and First Wives Club.

Here, Diane soars with her quirky approach to the role of a woman of a certain age, recently divorced, who can’t quite figure out how someone older than her is dating her daughter. Yet, she presents as unbothered and uncomplicated by this, as she’s such a renowned playwright that Keanu Reeves’s doctor recognizes her immediately at the mention of her name. The film has this interesting play of people dating younger people, as Nicholson has his chance with Peet (and historically a bunch of women before her), and Keaton becomes the object of desire for the young doctor, who is enamored with her, and unbothered by the age difference.

Frances McDormand, in a thankless and small role, plays Keaton’s sister, who laments that women of her sister’s age are not looked upon as being creatures of sexual desire by men, because the shelf life of a woman is much shorter than that of a man. Nicholson’s eternal bachelor is elusive, and keaton’s divorced playwright is not. But, the injection of reeves, who needs no convincing that Keaton is worth walking through fire for, changes the perspective. Suddenly, Keaton’s turtleneck wearing playwright is attractive to Nicholson’s recovering party monster.

Nicholson hilariously walks in one night while staying at the beach house, and accidentally sees Keaton naked. He claims it was an accident, but as reeves suggests to him, there are no accidents. I love this movie, and Nancy Meyers’s script, because it playfully highlights this relationship and also pulls at the strings of what makes these May/December relationships work. By the time you get to the end, Keaton has a very difficult choice. Is Nicholson worth the trouble and the heartbreak, or should she choose Reeves, who has been nothing but a perfect golden boy the entire film. He never needed to be convinced, but the whole film is a journey for Nicholson to become comfortable in his own age enough to allow himself to fall in love with Keaton.

I will deeply miss Diane Keaton, who Hollywood treated poorly in the final years of her life, offering her nothing but absolute crap. her last few films were half-assed attempts at roping in the AARP crowd, with forgettable flops like Summer Camp and Mac and Rita, alongside moderate forgettable successes like book Club and poms. She deserved a longer life if for no other reason than to end on a high note. Redford got the Old Man and the gun. Where was her final triumph?

Meyers wrote her the perfect film that played to the AARP crowd back in 2003, and somehow no other writer after was able to fully replicate that magic. A few of her other films were passable, like the family Stone, but this was the truly last great film of hers. it was also her final Oscar nomination.

Final Thoughts: Something’s Gotta Give, but did it have to be Keaton? Her magic will live on in this fantastic romcom classic, where she embraces everything that she is, and the audience does too.

Fresh: Final grade: 9.4/10