Moving On

Directed by Paul Weitz, Moving On follows Jane Fonda’s Claire and Lily tomlin’s Evvie as they reconnect after the death of an old friend – with complications ensuing once it becomes clear that Claire is looking to settle an old score with said friend’s husband (Malcolm McDowell’s Howard). Filmmaker Weitz, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a fairly forgettable yet consistently watchable endeavor that benefits from the top-notch efforts of its stars, as both Fonda and Tomlin turn in predictably stellar work that proves effective at elevating the sitcom-friendly material on an ongoing basis. (It doesn’t hurt, either, that the chemistry between the two icons is just about as palpable as one could envision.) And although the picture’s unabashedly crowd-pleasing sensibilities do pave the way for a few egregiously broad moments, Moving On contains its share of moving interludes that cumulatively ensure that it can’t help, by the time the appropriately upbeat finale rolls around, come off as a perfectly agreeable piece of work.

*** out of ****