Moving On

Stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in a wry black comedy/drama about secrets and revenge.

Fonda arrives in California for the funeral of an old college friend and sees the dead woman's husband which brings on bad memories of something (but we don't know what). Tomlin lives in a home and attends the same funeral and also has a bad reaction to seeing the husband (Malcolm McDowell). While Tomlin and Fonda renew their old friendship, the secrets start to emerge, and after Tomlin blurts out a big one at the wake it becomes obvious that they have a common enemy in McDowell.

While not laugh-out-loud funny, it's an amusing film and the chemistry between the stars is great. Richard Roundtree also appears as another old friend with a secret.

Ultimately, the film is about old wrongs, lost opportunities, and maybe even a little forgiveness before it's too late.

How was I watching this for the first time today without even realizing it was Lily Tomlin's birthday until I went to Twitter and saw her trending?! It's true! I'll never understand how this stuff happens, but Lily must have sent me a telepathic signal telling me to watch this in honor of her special day. Thanks, Lily!

I really like, maybe even love, this movie! Even though it's very serious in parts, it manages to take some of the most serious subjects, and one of the darkest plans a person could have, and turns it into something pleasant to watch for the most part! So in that way, this movie really is a wonder. Jane Fonda was great, but Lily - I loved her character! I mean I really loved her character!

The only real downside to this movie is that I couldn't stop seeing them as Grace and Frankie throughout. But other than that, this is one of the best buddy movies of recent times. A new fave. And if you can believe it, even though it's a movie about a woman planning to kill a man for his wrongdoing in the past, there's a lot of heart to this film - a lot of sweetness and touching moments.

This is a movie that I would say is not for everyone, but those that it is for, will appreciate it a lot!

Happy birthday, Lily! Thank you for all the great entertainment!

On the surface, another star-vehicle comedy milking Boomers getting old. But there's no treacle and smug self-satisfaction at having made it into Californian affluenza, or having "transited to a new house of life" and fantasizing that you've matured past all that silly youthful Sixties stuff. But: at the next level down, it's an unsloppy depiction of daily life for the demographic bulge of Boomer seniors waiting for the day they have to trade independent for assisted living (if they can afford it). And below that, a surprisingly ambitious piece of film art dealing with some material that is not generationally bounded: women's sexual autonomy, and its being put under threat by the experience of "me too", and the brutal reality of abusive male sexual behavior towards women, induced by substance abuse or not, and its being accepted as "it happens". And the lifelong scars that it leaves. And the incompleteness of the 1960-1970s sexual revolution, especially for men. Not a perfect movie by any means, but gutsy filmmaking by a couple industry masters. Jane and Lily mugged just a little too much some of the time, but they deliver the material it looks like they were intending to deliver. Oh, and with all due respect, they look great. Well done.

It's hard to believe it's been 63 years since Jane Fonda's big screen debut in "Tall Story", and her longevity has as much to do with her commitment to the characters she's played as it does to her innate talent in inhabiting them. Looking better here than in her other recent films like "80 for Brady" and "Book Club", she plays Claire, an eightysomething Ohio woman who flies to California to attend the funeral of one of her closest friends Joyce. Once at the wake, she confronts Joyce's widower Howard and asserts she will kill him that weekend for committing an unspeakable act a half-century earlier. The plot turns on this revelation into a prickly combination of melodrama and black comedy as Claire pairs with her long estranged friend Evelyn, a jaded lesbian cellist who fluctuates between supporting and rejecting Claire's monomaniacal mission. With Lily Tomlin in free-wheeling mode as Evelyn, they definitely have a lot of "Grace & Frankie"-type banter, but it resonates more here because both have repressed their feelings of deep-seeded resentment about how their lives had evolved. Richard Roundtree makes a welcome return as Claire's long-ago divorced first husband, and Malcolm McDowell makes Howard a venal character worthy of Claire's wrath. It doesn't all work, but it's good to see Tomlin and especially Fonda do such strong work thanks to Paul Weitz's dexterous direction and clever screenplay.

Hollywood excels at putting beautiful young people on our screens, even if it means matching a young woman with a very older man as a love interest. It's long annoyed me but Hollywood don't listen to reviews.

This film is a delightful tale of 4 older people who all share a common history, and 2 of the surviving ones want to correct some of that history. The lengths they go to is absurd but very funny.

I always think of Lily Tomlin as a female Woody Allen and she never changes, she is always good. Jane Fonda remains beautiful and just as engaging on screen as she ever was. Malcom McDowell despite his age now still exudes the violent and threatening demeanour he displayed all those years ago in Clockwork Orange.

Not the best film of the year but a thoroughly enjoyable one, and a brilliant reminded that ageing actors can still give great performances.