Movies from the Heart—Something’s Gotta Give

Last week I talked about the phenomenon of the “teen movie” when I focused on 10 Things I Hate About You. And movies for teens actually drive the market today and have for quite a few years now.

Why is that? What shifted? I think it’s due largely to the plethora of entertainment in today’s world. In the 40s and 50s adults went to the movies on the weekend—that’s just what they did. So lots of the stories were geared to the adult audience… understandably. But in the 60s and 70s it all shifted. Teens became a larger demographic and the studios started to cater to them.

Today you hear adults decrying the fact that most of the films that are being made are geared to younger audiences—in essence, not to them, not to adults.

So what’s happening? Well, it’s not all about the movies. It’s about how movies are shown. Most movie theatres make more money out of their concession stand purchases than they do from revenues from the films. And teens snack more and thus spend more on their popcorn, sodas and candy. So movie theatres are delighted to show films that appeal more to teens.

Of course, there are adult movies out there but the biggest group of complainers in today’s audiences? Older audiences. Viewers in their 50s, 60s,70s and beyond claim that though they’re the largest audience demographic, nobody’s making films about them.

But that wasn’t always true. And we don’t have to look far to see some great romantic films about older people and I thought I’d focus on a few of them over the next few weeks.

Let’s start with Something’s Gotta Give [2003] by Nancy Myers. This is a film about an older man who dates only younger women. But when he encounters the mother of his current dating partner, his life changes. He’s SO not interested in the mother, but she keeps popping into his life, kind of annoying him.

Take a look at the trailer for the film.

So you’ve got the womanizer, the younger woman he’s dating, and the mother of his young date. A bit of a different triangle. But the daughter drops out of the picture pretty quickly and the mother, due to unforeseen circumstances—is thrown together with our playboy.

So it’s a triangle love story but as the daughter is dropping out, it’s more of a love story between a reluctant playboy and a “real” woman—not the twinkies he normally dates.

This is a film that did extremely well at the box office—made for $80 million, it grossed close to $270 million—so a huge hit. One would think it might have spawned more films like it, romances about older adults. Alas, not the case.

But just a few years later, writer/director Nancy Myers would make another film about a mature romance called It’s Complicated, and we’ll talk about that next week.

Copyright © Diane Lake

23Feb25

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