Although it features a well worn-out plot and director Rob Reiner at his most bland, And So It Goes does benefit from a gung-ho comedic performance by Michael Douglas.

One can imagine Jack Nicholson sitting by the pool in his Mulholland Drive mansion, breaking the news to friend and sometime collaborator Rob Reiner (the pair worked on A Few Good Men and The Bucket List), that he’s gonna have to pass on And So It Goes.

After all, it’s a film that Nicholson has done twice in As Good as it Gets and Something’s Gotta Give. Only And So It Goes doesn’t come close to what those two much better films accomplished: Funny comedy and heartfelt romance, aimed towards the over 40 crowd, with awards aspirations for its leads.

That is not to say And So It Goes is a total dud. Written by Mark Dardus (an old hat of these films with As Good as it Gets amongst his credits), And So It Goes has a meaty lead role that is, well, very “Nicholson”.

Doing his best “Jaaaaaaack” is Michael Douglas. He stars as Oren, a cranky widow and realtor, whose penchant for being a grade A asshole is put to the test when he has to take guardianship of his never before seen 10 year old granddaughter, Sarah (Sterling Jerins, playing the role to cutie-pie perfection).

Young Sarah’s thawing of grandpa Oren’s icy approach to anything happy, compassionate or life affirming is actually quite touching, with director Rob Reiner’s midas touch with child actors (this is the man who directed Stand By Me) still at full power.

The real problem is the lack of chemistry between Douglas and Diane Keaton. She plays Leah, a lounge singer and widower whose sunny disposition is more annoying than welcoming. It doesn’t help that it seems as if Keaton has played the same character several times now, from character arc all the way down to pantsuit costume.

Douglas’s cranky bastard shtick and Keaton’s ditzy gleeful act, clashes rather than gels. Once upon a time Douglas could charm the pants off any lady, yet so unlikeable is his character’s faults (and there are many) that watching this courtship is akin to watching the Grinch hit on Annie Hall’s grandmother.

That Douglas is in full swing helps And So It Goes from being a total disaster. Dardus knows how to write a good put-down and Douglas delivers them with the right amount of grizzled venom. Yet watching a cranky old bastard is no fun without having a combatant of warm charm to play off. Keaton doesn’t make that role work, and Reiner’s inability to elicit some sort of spark between his two leads continues to prove that his best days are behind him.