And So It Goes

And So It Goes

And So It Goes does what it needs to do for its target audience in just enough ways. It’s a love story between two widowed 60-somethings designed to woo older, underserved moviegoers the ones who only get a “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” or some such about once a year but it does so with little wit, verve or originality.

It’s fine. Just not good.

Also not “As Good As It Gets,” although this film shares with that one a screenwriter (Mark Andrus), misanthropic male protagonists and interchangeably forgettable titles.

Rob Reiner is deep into late-career mode here; he’s playing it safe and hitting all the expected notes as he directs Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, who are nothing if not total pros as they try to breathe life into such strained material. When “And So It Goes” isn’t overreaching for wacky laughs or going all gooey and soggy when Douglas’ and Keaton’s characters have the chance to open themselves up to each other, quietly Reiner’s film can be effective, even enjoyable. But these moments are rare.

Mostly they’re bickering or awkwardly flirting their way toward canned romantic bliss. They’re on autopilot toward an inevitable destination that inevitably elicits yawns.

Douglas, as longtime Connecticut real estate agent Oren Little, is very much in the mode of Jack Nicholson’s curmudgeonly “As Good As It Gets” character Melvin Udall. He’s turned cranky and cruel since his wife died of cancer 10 years ago, spewing his venom at children and the elderly, strangers and longtime colleagues alike. He hates dogs and is casually racist. Surely he has a heart of gold waiting to be revealed.

Keaton co-stars as Leah Hartman, Oren’s next-door neighbor in the quaint, waterfront fourplex where he’s living while trying to sell his $8.6 million mansion. Her husband died a while ago too; since then she has tried to reinvent herself as a lounge singer and serves as the building’s de facto den mother. (Reiner stops the film for long stretches of time to let Keaton warble classic tunes in a heartfelt whisper. It is excruciating.) Basically, she is every character Keaton has played in the past decade or so: flighty and full of supposedly lovable tics and quirks. Surely she will facilitate Oren’s change of heart.

They do, actually just way too quickly and unbelievably. He helps toughen her up, she helps him soften. None of this is spoiler territory; we know from the poster exactly how things will turn out.

Try to figure out what forces the feel-goodery. Oren’s son (Scott Shepherd), who he has no relationship with because of his heroin addiction, arrives one day and tells him that he has a nine-year-old daughter (Sterling Jerins). Also that Oren needs to take care of her for the next nine months while he is in prison (for something he didn’t do, obviously). But will Oren and Leah learn how to be a family for this quiet little girl?

Oren always says the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. Then turns around and says something perfect when it matters most. Similarly, at what should be a sad goodbye, he will crack some terrible joke and ruin the moment. These jarring shifts in tone are repeated by Reiner, though mostly working in sitcom mode. For example: Whenever there’s a Rottweiler around, you know it’ll either a) take a dump on the lawn or b) hump some giant stuffed animal.

Reiner himself appears as the supportive toupeed pianist who accompanies Leah as she sings at a local restaurant. At one point when picking her up for their date, he accidentally steps onto a Slip ‘N Slide, falls flat on his ass and gets soaked which is about right.

Watch And So It Goes For Free On Gomovies.