Rating: R | Runtime: 85 minutes
Release Date: March 17th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Roadside Attractions
Director(s): Paul Weitz
Writer(s): Paul Weitz

Who told you I have a gun?

Joyce’s death marks the end of a chapter for Claire (Jane Fonda). One built upon patience. For forty-six years she has sat on the trauma of what happened to her at the hands of her best friend’s husband (Malcolm McDowell’s Howard) for the sake of Joyce’s happiness and now the time has come when she can take her pound of flesh without hurting anyone but herself. Because Claire is fine with the guilt. She’s fine with prison. None of that matters in comparison to revenge. So, she flies in for the funeral, finds Howard in the receiving line, and tells him straight up that she’s going to kill him before the weekend is over.

It’s a goofily macabre premise that Fonda sells with an immovable sense of clarity beyond mere rage. I think that’s the best part of Paul Weitz’s Moving On—this character being allowed to be dead-set on what she’s decided to do and unencumbered by anyone who might try and tell her what she feels isn’t justified or right. That’s not to say she doesn’t have someone to sort of play a voice of conscience anyway.

Evelyn (Lily Tomlin), Joyce’s former college roommate, has never liked Howard, but she also doesn’t want her friend to go to jail for the rest of her life. So, she uses humor to try and steer things down a different path. Not to save Howard (Evelyn is the only person who knows without a doubt that killing him is justified), but to save Claire. If, of course, she wants to be saved.

The comedy unfolds as an airing of repressed feelings and a reunion between old friends who (consciously or not) went their separate ways as a result of what occurred. Add Ralph (Richard Roundtree), a slew of rambunctious grandchildren, and, perhaps, some glaringly in-your-face commentary where sexuality and race are concerned and there ends up being a lot more in this 85-minute package than you might expect.

In the end, though, I think it works. Fonda is fantastic in the lead role, reliving horrors and exorcising demons. Tomlin is just as good, stealing so many scenes with an unmatched delivery and timing. The whole is probably over-written where the plot is concerned, but never when it comes to the characters. So, even when things go overboard, the actors ensure we won’t check out.

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Jane Fond and Lily Tomlin in MOVING ON; Photo by Aaron Epstein.