"Two old friends reconnect at a funeral and decide to get revenge on the widower who messed with them decades before." 

OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

Moving On is billed as a comedy and stars long-time favorites, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. But fans expecting a similar type of comedy like the hit Netflix show Grace and Frankie (also starring Tomlin and Fonda) should look elsewhere. Moving On is more of a drama with a few comedic moments sprinkled in. Despite this, Moving On manages to be relatively entertaining and covers some intense thematic topics. 

Claire (Jane Fonda) shows up to the funeral of long-time friend, Joyce, and confronts Joyce’s husband, Howard (Malcolm McDowell). She informs Howard that by the end of the weekend, she will kill him. This isn’t in a humorous or hyperbolic manner, Claire is perfectly serious. Another friend with whom Claire has lost touch with named Evelyn (Lily Tomlin) is also at the funeral. When Claire tells Evelyn of her murderous plan, Evelyn isn’t surprisingly not alarmed and instead asks her how she’s going to do it. The two even go to buy a gun together. Neither of the women seem to be fans of Howard but their reasons are kept a secret until near the end of the movie. 

We watch as Claire reconnects with Evelyn and with her ex-husband Ralph (Richard Roundtree). All the while, her plan to kill Howard looms in the background. Luckily this movie is very short, coming in at one hour and twenty-five minutes so even the less entertaining bits don’t drag on for too long. Fonda and Tomlin are excellent together as usual but the script from writer and director Paul Weitz lacks the biting wit that we’re used to seeing from the two legendary actors. They do well with what’s on the page and Tomlin’s deadpan delivery does elicit a few funny moments here and there. McDowell is solid as the foil to Fonda and although you don’t know what he’s done to Claire and Evelyn until the end, McDowell is unlikeable enough to make anyone’s alarm bells go off. 

There isn’t anything particularly gripping about Moving On. The story is fairly predictable, the dialogue is weak, and at times things go from deadly serious to kind of wacky as if Weitz couldn’t decide on what kind of movie he wanted to make. But Fonda and Tomlin fans will be entertained watching this and honestly, we’re all for seeing more stories about the older demographic on screen.