Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin star as estranged friends who reunite to seek revenge on the petulant widower, played by Malcolm McDowell, of their recently deceased best friend.
Along the way, Fonda’s character reunites with her great love, played by Richard Roundtree, as each woman learns to make peace with the past and each other.
Weiz wrote the script because Fonda and Tomlin asked him to write a movie they could star. Weitz said he wrote the story with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in mind as Claire and Evelyn, two pals who come together to get back at their friend’s partner after she passes away.
Tomlin has worked with Weitz previously on Admission and Grandma and has found that the filmmaker is “very open and supportive.”
Fonda also enjoys Weitz’s work, recalling, “I also watched American Pie and About a Boy and really liked Paul’s work, his sensibility.”
She viewed her character as an opportunity to stray a bit from the pure comedic roles she had been doing recently and “thought the script was really intriguing with the interesting play between comedy and tragedy.”
Weitz adds, “I like making movies about mature people who are still changing and becoming something new. Particularly women like Lily and Jane, who are so sharp and funny and loaded for bear.”
He further explains, giving more insight into his artistic approach, “I looked at this as a western, to some degree, with a gunslinger coming to town to get revenge on a man who wronged her, and saddling up with her old friend to help her.”
When Weitz writes a film, he usually thinks of a couple of scenes and then builds out from there instead of being set on making a film about something in particular. “There’s a phenomenological aspect to writing (and acting) that makes one simultaneously the creator and observer if you’re doing it properly,” Weitz notes.
Sharing his philosophy, “In this case, it was Jane walking up to Malcolm and saying ‘I’m going to kill you this weekend’ and wondering why, and then Lily interrupting his eulogy.”
