In theaters

SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE, written and directed by Nancy Meyers, 124 minutes, rated PG-13.

In the funny new sex comedy “Something’s Gotta Give,” Jack Nicholson is Harry Sanborn, a single, 63-year-old hip-hop record label owner who has been dating younger women for the better part of 40 years. Not unlike Nicholson himself.

Harry loves younger women, he loves to love younger women, he loves it when they love him and he loves it when everyone is happy with the loving.

He would be thrilled to keep this love train of his going if it weren’t for two major pit stops recently halting his life. First is a heart condition, which might be serious, particularly during sex, which Harry can’t and won’t do without. Second is the alarming intrusion of Diane Keaton’s Erica Barry into his life.

Mother of his current girlfriend, 29-year-old Marin (Amanda Peet), Erica is a famous playwright who has stopped Harry cold with a personality and a body that are far more fetching than he believes they ought to be, particularly for a woman “of a certain age,” which Erica certainly is.

In this case, that age happens to be somewhere over 50, which, to Harry, might as well mean 20 years in the grave.

Still, Erica is a challenge. She’s smart, witty, sexy and real, a bit neurotic and high-strung but nevertheless irresistible and downright luminous.

She’s a refreshing change from what Harry is used to dating, and she single-handedly has made him question pretty much everything in his life.

The same can be said for Harry’s influence on Erica, who has long since been divorced from Dave (Paul Michael Glaser) and who wasn’t exactly looking for a new man to shake up her life now. Muddying matters for her is 36-year-old Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves), the rakish, smoldering cardiologist who assists Harry in the film’s hilarious opening scenes when he has a heart attack while attempting to make love to Marin. Julian takes a shine to Erica and, as they say, romantic triangles ensue.

As directed by Nancy Meyers (“What Women Want,” “The Parent Trap”) from her own script, the movie – set in the Hamptons, New York City and Paris, benefits enormously from the casting of its leads, who turn in great, crowd-pleasing performances.

There are scenes in this movie that people will talk about, such as the extended period in which Keaton can’t stop crying, which is masterful in its unbridled escalation, or when Nicholson, under the influence of drugs, accidentally exposes his rear end in a hospital corridor. But what makes the movie so good are those moments when the characters realize they must come to terms with the depth of their feelings and take a risk that involves revealing their unexpected love for each other.

At this point in their lives, with second chances at love not as plentiful as they were in their youth, there is something very much at stake in such an admission. Keaton and Nicholson, both at the top of their games, know this and make us feel the pressure, the excitement, the potential heartbreak and the fear that tends to accompany falling in love at any age.

In “Something’s Gotta Give,” they’re as good as Hepburn and Tracy, and they give us plenty.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

FREAKY FRIDAY, directed by Mark Waters, written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon, 93 minutes, rated PG.

Mark Waters’ “Freaky Friday,” a solid remake of the 1977 comedy with Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster, stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as Tess and Anna Coleman, a combative mother and daughter forced to face their differences when they magically change bodies and become the other person.

To break the spell, Tess and Anna must come to a deeper appreciation for each other. Should they fail to do so, it’ll be an early round of estrogen-replacement therapy for 15-year-old Anna and another period of pimples for the middle-aged Tess, whose marriage to Ryan (Mark Harmon) is set to go off the very next day.

As written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon from the popular novel by Mary Rodgers, “Freaky Friday” is every bit as light and as goofy as it sounds, but unlike so many of today’s films aimed at teens and tweens, it doesn’t pander or patronize.

It was written with a careful eye, one that delivers a measure of insight into the battle between well-meaning mothers and hormonal teenage girls, and an unusually poignant climactic scene that deepens the story with a well-earned emotional punch.

Former scream queen Curtis unleashes her share of shrieks while fearlessly nailing Tess’ transition into Anna, and Lohan manages a similar tricky balancing act, melding seamlessly from Anna into Tess.

With Chad Michael Murray, Ryan Malgarini and Harold Gould in supporting roles, “Freaky Friday” has its gimmicks and its contrivances, but it steamrolls over most of them with its likable characters, clever dialogue and the strength of its cast.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.