REVIEW — “And So It Goes”

“And So It Goes” is the newest film Directed by Rob Reiner and stars Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. Oren Little (Douglas) is a crabby, (slightly racist?) retired jerk that no one likes. Which works out great for him because as far as he’s concerned, the whole planet can go to H-E-double-hockey-sticks. His plans to run away and retire come to a screeching halt when his estranged son(John Scott Shepherd) informs Oren that not only does he have a 6 year old granddaughter, but that he has to watch her for the next few months while he’s in jail. Oren’s kind and overly emotional neighbor, Leah (Keaton) intervenes and offers to help.

I didn’t have high expectations for this movie but with a decent cast and a good director like Rob Reiner, how bad could it be?

PRETTY FREAKING BAD, OKAY!

“And So It Goes” is so unbelievably un-funny. There are few funny moments, but I can count them on one hand because that’s about as many lines Frances Sternhagen had. I mean, I laughed more than just those times, but that is due to the defense mechanism I have developed over the years to keep from getting deliriously mad or crying. The dialogue in this movie was forced and incredibly painful.

Douglas and Keaton’s chemistry is magnetic. But not the type where they are naturally drawn to one another and everything snaps together perfectly. More like the kind of weak magnets that repel one another. And despite the amount of times that they awkwardly slip past each other, you keep pushing them together just to prove that you can. And even when they touch, everything in the universe is saying “please, make it stop.” Yeah, more like those kinda magnets.

Every character could have died and I could not have cared less. They all had cliché back stories and were the most uninteresting people ever created. Even the situations that they were in failed to spice things up. The events they put these characters through ranged from entirely boring (my sweet granddaughter is melting my ice cold heart) to ridiculous nonsense (we need to unexpectedly deliver this baby RIGHT NOW on your expensive leather couch).  It was a mess and it was all over the place.

“And So It Goes” is that type of ride that makes you so sick that you swear of roller coasters forever. If you have low expectations for romantic comedies, you might like it. Lots of people at my screening laughed a lot (I’m not sure at what, but it was happening. I heard it). But do not expect it to be on par with a film like “When Harry Met Sally.” My advice is to skip it altogether. Forever. There are much better movies in theaters right now. Any other movie is better.

1/5