In town for a funeral of her recently deceased friend, Claire (Jane Fonda) confides in her long time friend Evelyn (Lily Tomlin) that she sets out to kill the widower husband for a past wrongdoing.
I'm all for this resurgence of movies lead by women over the age of 65 (that aren't Meryl Streep), but so few of them have been good, to me at least. And Moving On may be the worst of them because this "comedy" is awful.
From the moment Claire tells Howard she's going to kill him I'm wondering what sort of wacky issue brought about this desire and the movie certainly lets you wonder for a while. Did he not invite her to the wedding? Did he accidentally kill her cat in some ridiculous fashion? No, He raped her.
Yes, the plot of this quirky comedy is set in motion by a sexual assault. Granted, you don't really know how true the accusations are until the final 3rd of the movie which is becoming a frustrating trend seen in the likes of Invisible Man, The Secrets We Keep, The Watcher, etc. But at least those movies treated it seriously. And if you think this movie is going to cleverly balance the emotions of that dark topic with some wit like done in Death of Stalin (2017) or Bernie (2011) then you'll be disappointed. It feels like there's so little conviction in the characters, despite what has happened and what they are planning on doing. I may not like Promising Young Woman but at least it committed to its subject matter. The darker subject matter here feels wildly out of place in a movie that is otherwise trying to be funny.
Key word: trying. Because good gosh this film was so devoid of laughs. I think I chuckled once and I can't even remember what for. The movies attempt at laughs are just so limp that most jokes don't even make it off the ground adding to an overall lifeless feel to the movie.
Then there's how thinly plotted it is. This movie is a bare 85 minutes and I think only 30 of them are actually about the main plot. Instead we get Claire reconnecting with her old husband and meeting his family. We have have Evelyn making friends with another retiree's grandchild who might be trans. Even that's not much but the movie just stretches each one of these things out SO MUCH. Last week I said 65 felt like the longest movie of 3 at just 1hr 36m. But THIS felt longer and much more unpleasant. This movie wastes the talents of its cast to the point that I am more than happy to be moving on from it.
I'm all for this resurgence of movies lead by women over the age of 65 (that aren't Meryl Streep), but so few of them have been good, to me at least. And Moving On may be the worst of them because this "comedy" is awful.
From the moment Claire tells Howard she's going to kill him I'm wondering what sort of wacky issue brought about this desire and the movie certainly lets you wonder for a while. Did he not invite her to the wedding? Did he accidentally kill her cat in some ridiculous fashion? No, He raped her.
Yes, the plot of this quirky comedy is set in motion by a sexual assault. Granted, you don't really know how true the accusations are until the final 3rd of the movie which is becoming a frustrating trend seen in the likes of Invisible Man, The Secrets We Keep, The Watcher, etc. But at least those movies treated it seriously. And if you think this movie is going to cleverly balance the emotions of that dark topic with some wit like done in Death of Stalin (2017) or Bernie (2011) then you'll be disappointed. It feels like there's so little conviction in the characters, despite what has happened and what they are planning on doing. I may not like Promising Young Woman but at least it committed to its subject matter. The darker subject matter here feels wildly out of place in a movie that is otherwise trying to be funny.
Key word: trying. Because good gosh this film was so devoid of laughs. I think I chuckled once and I can't even remember what for. The movies attempt at laughs are just so limp that most jokes don't even make it off the ground adding to an overall lifeless feel to the movie.
Then there's how thinly plotted it is. This movie is a bare 85 minutes and I think only 30 of them are actually about the main plot. Instead we get Claire reconnecting with her old husband and meeting his family. We have have Evelyn making friends with another retiree's grandchild who might be trans. Even that's not much but the movie just stretches each one of these things out SO MUCH. Last week I said 65 felt like the longest movie of 3 at just 1hr 36m. But THIS felt longer and much more unpleasant. This movie wastes the talents of its cast to the point that I am more than happy to be moving on from it.