And So It Goes (review)

Review by Elizabeth Robbins

And So It Goes is a romantic comedy made unabashedly for the baby-boomer generation.

Director Rob Reiner brings us another movie that I know my parents will love to watch.

Michael Douglas (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Wonder Boys) plays Oren Little, a martini drinking, widowed, self absorbed, real estate broker in a Hamptons-like town in Connecticut.

Oren is looking to make that one last big real estate deal so he can retire to Nowhereville, Vermont.

For his neighbors, including the flighty lounge singer, Leah, (Diane Keaton, The Godfather, Something’s Gotta Give) Oren can’t move soon enough.

His bullying and abrasive manner wins him few friends.

Things begin to change when Oren’s estranged son pops up out of the blue and gives his daughter into Oren’s sole custody before going to jail for a white collar crime. Oren is left with a granddaughter, Sarah (Sterling Jerins, World War Z), that he never knew existed.

Seeing that leaving Sarah in Oren’s care would be a disaster, Leah intervenes on the little girl’s behalf. With Sarah there to bring them together, Oren and Leah begin a rocky road to romance.

Rob Reiner has the ability to take a mundane, made for TV movie romance and fill it with wonderful, off beat moments and humor. The banter between Douglas and Keaton has a hint of genuineness that hits home. Douglas’s acidic delivery is a great foil to Keaton’s sweetly deceptive sarcasm. Jernis walks the line well of playing Sarah earnestly without overshooting it into Candyland saccharine the way some child actors do.

This movie was not made for me or my generation, and that is what I liked about it.

There are no 20-30 something leading men or ladies in tight clothes looking pouty at the camera for their close up. You have two actors who were sex symbols of their generation still being sex symbols for their generation. Reiner is letting us know that life doesn’t stop at 60.

There is sex, fun, heartache, lessons to learn, and opportunities to love and grow.

And So It Goes has it’s schmaltz moments, most of them when Keaton is doing her lounge singing, but it has that great Reiner combination of dry humor and heart to make it worth watching.

Take your folks to see it, I am sure they will enjoy it.