AND SO IT GOES -The Review

Here’s a film that tries to prove that the multiplex from May through September isn’t off-limits to the AARP crowd. Hey, they like to get out of the heat for an escape to a cool theatre too! Usually a flick with a (ahem) more mature cast and subject is released in the late Fall or Winter. So, who’s giving you a chance to take the folks (or your auntie or “Nan-Nan”) to the cinema in July (hopefully far down the hall, away from those noisy action epics) ? Why, it’s none other than Mr. Rob Reiner (no meathead jokes or I’ll age myself), a big time feature director for thirty years now (three decades since Spinal Tap)!. And he’s reteamed with the Oscar-winning star of one of his most popular efforts, Michael Douglas from THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Whose co-star is another Oscar winner, Annie Hall herself, Diane Keaton. So can this veteran screen trio triumph against the superheroes, giant robots, and rebelling apes with AND SO IT GOES?

As the credits appear, we’re introduced to Oren Little (Douglas), a sharply dressed, snazzy senior citizen tooling about Connecticut in his sporty convertible. But his bravado hides a heavy heart. He stops off at the local cemetery to drop off fresh flowers at the gravesite of his wife, who departed a decade ago. Then he’s off to the luxurious estate they shared to meet some potential buyers (Oren’s got his own real estate biz). It doesn’t go well when they attempt to “low ball” him on the home’s asking price. Soon, it’s time to head to his current residence: a cozy four-plex on the beach. The grumpy Oren occupies one of the two first floor units (much to the annoyance of the other tenants). One of those annoyed is his downstairs neighbor Leah (Keaton), another widow. She makes a living by singing with a small jazz combo, led by pianist and sometimes beau Artie (director Reiner), most evenings at a local restaurant. But it seems she has difficulty finishing certain songs that bring up memories of her late hubby, leaving Artie and the boys to improvise as she sobs and dashes away. One day life throws a major curve at Owen when his estranged son Luke (Scott Shepherd) stops by to tell dad that he’ll be heading off to prison (no doubt thanks to his drug habit, thinks Oren). Luke needs him to take care of the granddaughter Oren has never meet (her mother is out of the picture). Despite Oren’s loud protests, Luke drops off Sarah (Sterling Jerins) at the four-plex before heading off to the big house. Luckily Leah is there to help and immediately bonds with the sad ten year-old. Oren enlists Sarah as a babysitter and surrogate grandma’ as he adjusts his retirement game plan. A romance slowly blossoms between the unlikely caregivers as the self-centered Oren begins to open his heart to life once more.

After some recent health scares, it’s great to see Douglas back on any size screen (if you’ve not caught it yet, check out the HBO biopic “Behind the Candelabra”), but Oren is just a slight improvement over his role in last year’s dreary LAST VEGAS. His small town East Coast realtor widower is a low-rent “Gordon Gekko” crossed with Lemmon and Matthau’s final pairings. There’s no real bite to his zingers and insults since we know that deep down he’s a rascal not a curmudgeon. Ultimately, in order to sell some of the weaker story points, he must resort to forced facial mugging and slapstick schtick. Douglas, despite his gifts, can’t breathe life into this sitcom plotting. Keaton is also another welcome screen presence, especially with her gentle song stylings, but her Leah is a bit of a wet blanket who’s easily manipulated by the often overbearing Oren. She has a lovely rapport with Sarah, but little real chemistry with Douglas’s character. Leah seems to be resigned to the fact that they’ll be a couple eventually. This is a big step down from her stylish senior over ten years ago in SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE. Jerins is achingly sweet in a role reminiscent of the late show movie waifs whose only really function is to get the adult leads together by the final fadeout. She’s a lovely actress, but she’s made to tug too hard at the heartstrings. Another acting vet, Frances Sternhagen, is brought on to try to enliven the dull proceedings as Douglas’ even older, feisty, no-holds-barred office worker who appears to have wondered in from a “Golden Girls” rerun. Oh, she’s a chain-smoker who puffs away everywhere, what a hoot! But the main humiliations are taken on by the director himself. Wimpy Artie’s only purpose is to sport bad, bad toupees (that elicits Oren insults), wear tacky suits, and fall down. Considering that Reiner was one of the few bright spots of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, this may be the film’s biggest slight.

His choice of acting role is somewhat representative of the low-key energy pf Mr. Reiner’s direction. Aside from the acting royalty leads, this could easily have premiered on a basic cable TV channel. During the screening I kept wondering why this innovative film maker (quite a string of hits during the late 1980’s into the mid 90’s) was lending his talents to this material. Writer Marc Andrus seems to be taking qualities of his leads from his biggest hit, AS GOOD AS IT GETS and giving them a family friendly spin to the point of making this film’s story a string of sitcom episodes strung together (you can almost hear the network voice-over touting ” a very special episode of…”). This may be the reason some scenes just come out of left field, particularly an out-of-place emergency childbirth. The location work is lovely but it’s not enough to distract us from the lack of real rapport between the leads. There is a huge segment of the movie-going audience that’s eager for an engaging, witty love story between two adults in their “golden years”, and they deserve better than the uninspired AND SO IT GOES. Here’s hoping these seasoning film pros devote their time to more worthy, engaging projects.

1.5 Out of 5