MOVING ON – Review by T. J. Callahan
Moving On: “ I don’t hate anybody, it’s too exhausting.”
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are obviously NOT Moving On. They’re back on the big screen again, in a little over a month, co-starring with a smarmy Malcolm McDowell and a suave Richard Roundtree in a rated R for revenge comedy that’s more Grace and Frankie than 80 for Brady.
Moving On tells the story of long time friends, Claire and Evelyn, who reunite at the funeral of their college bestie, Joyce. Claire (Fonda) is there for retribution. To right a wrong. To go Dirty Harriet on Joyce’s grieving husband played by McDowell. Evelyn (Tomlin) returns to reveal a long kept secret and act as Claire’s sidekick. Tomlin is Ethel to Fonda’s Lucy, but she ends up with all the laughs.
No matter what they show up for, Fonda and Tomlin know how to entertain us while still making a statement about the older generation. Moving On is more sarcastic than slapstick. It’s a What Happened instead of a Who Done It. It’s an octogenarian Big Chill whose dark comedy will leave you snickering.
The best part of Moving On is that it moves a pace. The unfinished business gets finished in a tidy hour and 25 minutes. You can catch the matinee and be out in time to take advantage of the senior citizen special at the neighborhood Chinese buffet. You’ll have room for it, because Moving On isn’t too filling, it’s just right even though it got a bit too repetitive for my husband, Ricky. He gives Moving On one and a half 👁’s open. I give it a 6 out of 10.
