Respond to these rapid questions in our Moving On quiz and we will tell you which Moving On character you are. Play it now.
Bette Davis notably sewed the phrase “old age ain’t no place for sissies” across a pillow. This truism is at the core of writer/director Paul Weitz’s “Moving On,” which stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as Claire and Evelyn, two aging, estranged friends thrown together again after decades at their mutual friend Joyce’s funeral.
The film is a melodrama with comedic elements about Claire’s desire for revenge for a sexual assault committed nearly 50 years ago by Joyce’s husband Howard (Malcolm McDowell) that completely derailed her life. She distanced herself from Joyce and Evelyn, abandoned her loving husband Ralph (Richard Roundtree, as charming and suave as ever), and has spent the majority of her life terrified by the event.
However, this isn’t a movie that exists purely for the plot mechanics. It’s a clear-eyed examination of the cumulative weight of getting older, of carrying your life, hopes, memories, and regrets with you wherever you go. The title “Moving On” refers not only to moving on from your past, but also to continuing to move forward in life even if your history follows you.
Fonda and Tomlin, like the characters they portray, have spent decades building a deep friendship while appearing together in projects like “9 to 5” and “Grace and Frankie,” and their chemistry is as strong as ever. They are not, however, simply acting out their own personalities.
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Claire is a woman who never found her own power, always living for others after being rendered “mute” by the attack. Fonda portrays her with a solemn rigidity, her body clenched as if thousands of emotions are on the verge of escaping the cage she’s built around them. Claire’s long-repressed sense of humor, sensuality, and seething rage find their way to the surface as she reconnects with Evelyn, Ralph, and even Howard.
Tomlin portrays Evelyn, a retired musician, with her trademark deadpan wit, always seeming to say what she means and feels at any given moment, unafraid to be completely herself. Evelyn, on the other hand, is a woman with secrets, wounded pride, and a love for music – and for women – that hasn’t been satisfied in far too long. She lives as independently as she can in the independent portion of an assisted living facility. Evelyn’s complex emotions are heightened by Joyce’s death and Claire’s return to her life, a shift portrayed with deft precision by Tomlin, whose eyes belie her stoic face and monotonous voice.
Moving On Quiz
While Evelyn assists Claire in plotting her vengeance, the two debate the incident’s immediate aftermath. Claire didn’t call the cops because “they wouldn’t have believed me.” On the one hand, the dialogue here is on the nose, but when you look back 50 years and then forward again, and see how little has changed for women in this country in terms of bodily autonomy and rapist prosecution, perhaps on the nose becomes just the reality.
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When Claire eventually gets to say goodbye to Howard, she vividly describes the assault, recalling every horrifying detail as if it happened yesterday rather than nearly 50 years ago, because time stopped for her on that day. Fonda delivers this monologue with as much force and conviction as any in her career, drawing on not only Claire’s trauma but all the compound traumas she has witnessed as a woman in this country over the last half-century.
McDowell portrays Howard as the type of privileged man who has done just enough work on himself to consider himself a “changed man,” but has only truly achieved healing for himself and those he’s harmed. Howard is less of a character and more of a symbol for all the influential men who get away with it time and time again. This could be considered a script failure, but it also enables Howard to get his just desserts at the end without the audience feeling too sorry for the family he abandons.
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While the tonal shifts from melodrama to mordant comedy aren’t always successful, Fonda and Tomlin are as good as they’ve ever been, and “Moving On” proves to be a potent rumination on the fortitude it takes to age—mentally, physically, and financially. Living with yourself and your traumas, embracing your pleasures, and being there for those you care about requires strength.
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The film is currently showing in theaters.
For more personality quizzes check this: Breeding Difficulty Quiz.
