Moving On
review by Bobby Blakey
One of my favorite films growing up was 9 to 5 that teamed up Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. These life-long friends have since reteamed for the hit series Grace and Frankie as well as the recent release 80 For Brady and they show no signs of slowing down. Their latest film, Moving On reteams them together once again co-starring Malcolm McDowell, and Richard Roundtree from About A Boy and Grandma director Paul Weitz. Could this new outing bring more laughs or will it be time to move on?
Moving On follows estranged friends who reunite to seek revenge on the petulant widower of their recently deceased best friend. Along the way, Fonda’s character reunites with her great love as each woman learns to make peace with the past and each other.
Heading into this on from seeing the trailers I guess I expected yet another comedy feature from these two icons, but to my surprise this is something altogether different. There is a dark comedy aspect to the film and when it brings some laughs it works exactly as you expect from these true life friends, but there is a darker subject matter here that gets pretty heavy at times.
We know out the gate that Fonda’s Claire is planning on killing this man as she says it right to her face. The comedy comes from the planning and hurtles they face trying to figure out how to pull it off. The drama that unfolds on the circumstance is sad and might be too close to home for some. There are laughs, but it is dealing with PTSD situations and life choices that have been affecting them for decades.
It’s an interesting and often times entertaining choice to explore these sensitive subjects to through the lense of older people. They have lived lives and seemingly moved on, but the pain of the past still haunts them and trying to navigate that is hard. Here they do just that while also finding truth, redemption and solution to their life time struggles and how to move forward.
Fonda and Tomlin are great as always with a strong supporting cast in McDowell and Roundtree bringing different layers to their past, present and future. It does have some pacing issues at times and doesn’t always seem to know if it wants to be a comedy or drama, but when it works it does well. The strongest moments are the personal ones of revelation and pain that really help to elevate it more than it might as a straight forward comedy.
While it may not be the strongest team up they have had it is a nice change of pace to see these two in something more than just looking for laughs. Join their plan for revenge and grab your copy of Moving On available now on digital, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate.