Moving On
“Moving On” is just your typical buddy comedy about death, wanting to kill, and reconnecting with a dear friend after years apart. Paul Weitz isn’t doing anything to reinvent the wheel- he’s entire motive is to give Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda a chance to shine in an amiable movie, and we get exactly that. Will I remember this movie a few years down the road? Probably not, but in the moment it is as charming as you’d want it to be.
The film begins with Fonda’s Claire saying goodbye to her dog- she is going out of town to her old friend’s funeral. But it isn’t long until we realize she has another idea in mind; when she sees her friend’s husband (Malcolm McDowell) again, she tells him, point blank, that she’s going to kill him. She doesn’t have any ideas of how yet, but when her other friend, Evelyn (Tomlin), shows up, she tells her what she’s planning, and wants to know if she wants in.
Potential murder may be the driver of the plot, but “Moving On” has more on its mind than just that. This hits on familiar beats of friends finding out what their lives are like after years apart, but the moments that are most engaging involve families. Claire and Evelyn have time they spend around their friend’s daughter and her kids, and even if not all secrets are revealed about Claire’s history with McDowell’s character, Evelyn has some things to reveal that lead to a lovely moment between her and Allie (Sarah Burns), the daughter, who knew before she even said anything. I think my favorite moments in the film involve Claire and an old husband, played by Richard Roundtree. Intellectually speaking, I know Roundtree has done more than “Shaft” as an actor, but even when I have seen him, he’s often playing a hard-nosed character, so seeing him in this role, where he’s genuinely sweet, is a surprise. Whether it’s them reconnecting at the wake, or a dinner with his daughter and grandkids, to the moments alone after everyone has gone to bed, Fonda and Roundtree have some of the film’s most endearing moments.
Weitz’s comedy in this script is not particularly funny, but “Moving On” does end up being a lot of fun to watch. The twists of fate involved with the murder plot are quite amusing, whether it’s commenting on reasonable gun control, the “gun” that the women end up getting a hold of, and how it ends up being utilized. The script is slight but allows the main actors to play off of their personas quite well, and we feel satisfied by the film’s conclusion. I ended up enjoying this quite a bit, and if you’re a fan of the stars, it’s hard not to think that you will, as well.
