The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Himika Akram reporter
Ever since Paul Weitz’s “M0ving on” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, I was eagerly waiting for the magic created by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Indeed, their dynamic was great.
Besides these two, the ensemble cast also includes Malcom McDowell, Richard Roundtree, Catherine Dent, among others. This movie very much reminded me of Grace and Frankie, just with a bit sassier vibe and a bit darker tone.
Two old friends Claire (Fond) and Evvie (Tomlin) reunited in their friend’s funeral and there we see Fonda is threatening the deceased friend Joyce’s husband (McDowell) to kill him to take revenge. But what is the intention behind her wanting to kill him, it is not disclosed to the audience until much later. But her friend Evvie (Tomlin), even though doubts about the idea, supports her decision morally, by accompanying her bestie when the former goes to buy a gun. Evvie is a progressive lesbian, who calls spade a spade and supports other persons right to express themselves as well. She admits that she was Joyce’s lesbian lover. In the middle of all this, Claire reunites with her ex-husband Ralph (Roundtree), whom she divorced many years ago.
Even though the two friends were not in contact with each other for a long time, and it created a tiff between the two, but finally when they met; their friendship revived, and Evelyn was the only person with whom Claire shares what happened with Howard years ago; an incident which nearly destroyed her life. It enraged her so much, that when the gun plan failed, she was thinking of some other alternative plan to kill Howard; either by running him over by a car or smothering him with a pillow and so on.
The only thing which made the movie a bit bland was the when the weight of the wrongdoing Howard did, was revealed to the audience, that is when the seriousness of it got a bit slackened due to the dark comedy which found itself in the wrong places of the movie.
Regardless, the movie was a good reminder to the audience that two women can also be starred together and create the same chemistry Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau showed onscreen AND with sassy humor. This movie gives a beautiful message of whatever your age is, you can make peace with the past and pave the way for a fresh future at any point of time. Two ladies acted exactly how the script demanded instead of trying to go overboard with the comedic parts. Though I felt Facebook has made both actors’ facial expressions immobile; even in their 80s, they did an excellent job.
This movie was released in the USA on March 17 by Roadside Attractions. My personal rating of this movie would be 6.5/10.