‘Moving On’ Review: Jane Fonda And Lily Tomlin Out For The Kill In Paul Weitz’s Rich Dark Comedy
14.09.2022 - 06:09
/ deadline.com
Writer/Director Paul Weitz wrote the sublime road comedy Grandma for Lily Tomlin, and now at the suggestion of Tomlin he wrote a new film for both Lily and Jane Fonda, one with characters unrecognizable from the pair they played for seven years on the Netflix sitcom, Grace And Frankie, in a story tinged with a dark side, as well as some pungent commentary on the effect of sexual trauma, even nearly a half century later. This is the kind of movie I love, independently made, using great actors in a unexpected kinds of roles, running a tight no-fat 85 minutes, and being thoroughly entertaining with something to say as well.
Fonda plays Claire who is attending the funeral of her old college roommate Joyce. She meets again with another college friend Evie (Tomlin) and confesses her plans don’t include just attending a funeral to pay respects, but also to kill Joyce’s husband Howard (a creepy Malcolm McDowell) who on a drunken night decades ago, and beknownst to his wife, inflicted sexual trauma on Claire, a horrendous experience she never told Joyce about, but like so many victims of sexual abuse has kept it pent up, in her case for 46 years. She has her mind set to carry out her murder plans, and the film actually gets quite a few nervous laughs out of her raw and decided determination. Fonda plays her alternately fragile and confident in her mission, someone confronting finally a past she had hidden away but not afraid to act on it in graphically violent terms. A kitchen knife at the reception will do, or a trip to a gun shop to buy a gun to shoot Howard, or a deal made with a friend who might have another kind of gun that will do the trick, or how about just smothering him with a pillow?
Tomlin’s caustic Evie has her own
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