Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Moving On’ on VOD, a Disappointing Lily Tomlin-Jane Fonda Revenge-Comedy Vehicle

Moving On (now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video) pairs apparent IRL besties Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, again. Their on-and-off-screen duohood began way back in 1980 with 9 to 5, but hit a new peak in recent years with long-running Netflix series Grace and Frankie, dopey football comedy 80 for Brady and now this, an offbeat revenge dramedy from filmmaker Paul Weitz. The director’s previous film with Tomlin – 2015 gem Grandma, which he wrote specifically for the comedy legend – ended up being creatively bountiful and a career highlight for both, so here’s hoping adding Fonda to the mix resulted in something similarly inspired.   

MOVING ON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Claire (Fonda) talks to her dog like she’s never gonna see him again: curious. She flies back to California for the funeral of an old friend with a grim sense of purpose. She approaches the widower (Malcolm McDowell) and tells him in a steely tone, “Howard, I’m going to kill you.” OK then! It seems outside the boundaries of appropriate funeral decorum, but she must have her reasons. And then Evelyn (Tomlin) wanders in smack In the middle of the memorial, nonchalantly disrupting Howard’s eulogy as his kids and grandkids look on. Claire, Evelyn and their late friend were tight, very tight, back in college. Something happened. Everyone’s a bit estranged these days. And now, Evelyn and Claire seem to be deep into their DGAF days. And this guy Howard? He’s a real shit. And real shits bring people back together as a united front against his shitness.

At first, the two women are prickly with each other. Evelyn’s a touch cynical, a barbed quip for every situation. She doesn’t want much to do with Claire until she blurts out, “I told him I was gonna kill him this weekend. I’m gonna kill the bastard.” Evelyn’s reply? “I could chat.” They go to the gun store together, but Claire can’t buy one with an out-of-state ID. So much for that? Nah. She’ll just have to stab him at the wake tomorrow. Problem solved.

So. WHAT exactly did Howard DO? It must’ve been awful, but we can only wonder for now, because the movie teases us with the reveal as it gives us some background on our two principals. At the funeral, Claire reconnects with her ex-husband Ralph (Richard Roundtree), who, after decades, still doesn’t understand why she left him; they both moved on, and had children and grandchildren and, at least on the surface, led happy lives. Evelyn, a former concert cellist, goes back to her independent-living apartment in a retirement home, arthritis hampering her ability to play music; her wife passed away and she struggles to fit in at this place, but she has a young friend, the grandson of a fellow resident, who’d rather play dress-up with her jewelry than play ball and shoot guns with his grandpa. The next day, Claire and Evelyn show up at the wake. Claire walks into the kitchen and grabs a big butcher knife, and Evelyn starts dropping nuclear truth-bombs. Old stuff is bubbling up, and apparently, this is how they’re dealing with it.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Well, 9 to 5 found our two enduring and endearing leads concocting a revenge scheme against a sexist pig. But otherwise, Moving On is like The Bucket List crossed with, um, Promising Young Woman? Yeah, sure, Promising Young Woman.

Performance Worth Watching: Tomlin and Fonda, their chemistry as strong as ever, do one thing extraordinarily well here: it’s called “elevating the material,” and it gives you the sense that the movie wouldn’t work in the slightest with lesser talent.

Memorable Dialogue: Nobody can deliver the following line with as much honesty and credibility as Tomlin: “I don’t hate anybody. It’s too exhausting.” 

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Moving On is better than you’d expect, especially if you gutted out the cinematic malfeasance that is 80 for Brady. But it’s still not up to the level of its stars, who Weitz leans on – heavily, very heavily – to smooth out the tonally rocky screenplay. It’s a gambit for the writer/director, who gamely attempts to find the sweet spot between the lighthearted and upbeat comedic goodwill Tomlin and Fonda bring to the table, and some dead-serious subject matter, which addresses indelible psychological trauma. (I won’t reveal what happened among these characters decades ago, but whatever you’re thinking it is, it’s probably in the ballpark.)

That isn’t to say this approach to the material could never work, especially considering the talent on the screen, but in this case, it’s a struggle. The screenplay is begging for another pass or two, to enliven the dialogue and smooth out its many inconsistencies – the subplots orbiting Tomlin’s character seem tossed in to fill time, to say the least, and the ungainly blend of slapstick (dog attacks!) and grueling confessionals (Claire confronting Howard for his past evils), to say the absolute most. It’s up to Fonda and Tomlin to sort through the bric-a-brac and find the truth and substance of their characters, and they do, because after all this time in Hollywood, being great is second nature for them. And just as we’re about to give Moving On a generous pass, it drops an infuriating, plausibility-destroying occurrence upon us, and it’s enough to make one want to kick the deus right in its ex machina. Just when we thought we were in, it pushes us back out.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Even two of the all-time greats can’t overcome Moving On’s myriad problems.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.