Rob Reiner blows it with Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton’s mature-age rom-com And So It Goes

AND So It Goes: The directorial mojo that resulted in crowd-pleasing classics When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, Stand By Me and This Is Spinal Tap is gone forever.

Rom hard to love, Com hard to find

WHO knows what Rob Reiner did to offend the filmmaking gods so?

Only one thing is certain. The directorial mojo that resulted in crowd-pleasing classics such as When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, Stand By Me and the immortal This Is Spinal Tap is gone forever.

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Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas in a scene from <i>And So It Goes</i>. Picture: Supplied

Reiner’s latest lamentable effort is And So It Goes, a mature-age rom-com where the rom is hard to love and the com is hard to find.

Michael Douglas stars as widowed real estate hustler Oren Little, a geriatric Gordon Gecko working on one last big sale: his family home.

Oren has slapped an asking price of $8 million on the property. The market is offering $6 million. Suffice to say it ain’t no fixer-upper, and Oren isn’t battling for a buck.

Oren Little (Douglas) is left looking after his granddaughter (Sterling Jerins) in the film. Picture: Supplied

Nevertheless, And So It Goes expects us to quickly warm to the curmudgeonly charms of this old fox, who appears to be yet to meet a fellow human being he actually likes.

(Or for that matter, a domestic pet. The opening scene of the film has Oren firing a paintball gun at the rear end of a dog taking a toilet break on his front lawn.)

A coffin full of long-deceased plot devices is prised open. While The Son He Never Knew is doing time in jail for A Crime He Did Not Commit, Oren is unwillingly lumbered with the custody of The Granddaughter He Never Knew.

Michael Douglas, Sterling Jerins and Diane Keaton in a scene from the film. Picture: Supplied

Our hero’s next-door neighbour, Leah (Diane Keaton), starts out loathing Oren just as much as the audience.

Then she takes a shine to that kid he can barely care for. Soon enough, Leah is amorously prodding away at a soft side to Oren that is almost as unlikeable as his hard side.

Leah is also a lounge singer of little repute, which clears the storytelling decks occasionally so some sleeping-pill jazz can be slipped into proceedings.

If you feel a sudden need to nod off, just go with it.

Diane Keaton, as Leah, goes from loathing neighbour to romantic interest in <i>And So It Goes. </i>Picture: Supplied

And So It Goes (M)

Director: Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally)

Starring: Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton

Verdict: And how it blows ★

Originally published as Rob Reiner blows it with Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton’s mature-age rom-com And So It Goes