A Family Affair Review: The Romantic Film That Exceeded Our Expectations
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Joey King, Liza Koshy, Kathy Bates
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars)
Directed by Richard LaGravenese, A Family Affair is a romantic comedy starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King. The plot follows Zara (King), whose life changes dramatically when her celebrity boss, Chris (Efron), begins an affair with her mother, Brooke (Nicole Kidman). Although it might remind us of the recent The Idea of You, LaGravanese’s film only shares its premise, developing the theme of celebrity in a totally different way and focusing less on the luxuries of star life and more on the personal dynamics of the couple. Despite a rather funny start, with Zac Efron perfectly cast as an eccentric and self-centered actor, the film gradually loses its comic verve when the character becomes unbearably perfect. However, the in-depth exploration of the mother-daughter relationship between Brooke and Zara helps the narrative to improve somewhat, showing how Zara must begin to see her mother as a person with her desires and defects, and not just as a parent; one approach adds an emotional and authentic dimension to the story.
There is always a certain prejudice against romantic comedies. After all, this film genre is often underrated and considered by many as “inferior” compared to other types of stories that are a little more “serious” such as thrillers, dystopian films, or dramas. It must be said, however, that romantic films, even if they follow (almost) always the same narrative standards and despite their usual happy ending, continue to be loved by the public and are sometimes able to reach the public much more than a drama or action film. And that is exactly what happens with the new Netflix rom-com, A Family Affair. Will surprise you with an ironic, profound, and charming story that manages to both entertain with a fresh and modern comedy and make you reflect on various important themes such as the relationship between parents and children, the search for one’s happiness at any age, the feelings of guilt that one feels every time one decides to put one’s happiness before that of others and much more. In addition, the plot is so well structured, the dialogues well written, the comedy spot on and the characters well explored that the audience doesn’t even feel the weight of a minute of the 111 total minutes of the film.
A Family Affair Review: The Story Plot
Zara (Joey King) lives in the shadow of her mother Brooke (Nicole Kidman), a successful writer. To fulfill herself, the girl chose the path of cinema, with the dream of soon having a role in the production. To achieve the coveted goal, for some years the young woman has been acting as personal assistant to Hollywood superstar Chris Cole (Zac Efron), satisfying the star’s most absurd whims, with the promise of soon being promoted to a position closer to the aspirations of her. After yet another senseless argument, Zara can’t take it anymore and she decides to leave her impossible boss. An event that not only changes her life, but also leads to the meeting, and consequent falling in love, between her mother – the woman is a widow – and the egocentric actor. Naturally, the strange relationship will be opposed by her incredulous and dismayed daughter.
Every waiter in Hollywood dreams of being an actor or has a script in the drawer. A statement that, however hyperbolic, has a grain of truth. Many are young people who have moved to Los Angeles chasing the dream of cinema, often having to deal with the difficulties of life in the big and ruthless metropolis. People willing to accept even the humblest jobs to support themselves, but also capable of providing precious contacts with the world of entertainment (yes, we know, in Hollywood sometimes all it takes is knocking on the right door to turn your life around). Maybe working as a night porter in a hotel frequented by “producer X”, in the hope of giving him your script, or, like one of Zara’s friends, tidying up the boundless wardrobes of spoiled jet-set stars.
A Family Affair Review and Analysis
This multigenerational coming-of-age romantic comedy glues you to the screen from start to finish and follows the characters – all well-written – as they face the complications of love, sex, and identity and it is precisely this that manages to expose the fragilities of several generations of women and men to give something extra to the film. A Family Affair is not just a light and romantic story to spend a pleasant evening on the couch with, but it is a film that has a lot to say and that speaks to several generations of women, from twenty-year-olds in crisis with their own lives to fifty-year-olds who have abandoned themselves for their children, all the way up to older women who do everything they can to still experience strong emotions. There are small traces of this reality in A Family Affair, as well as of the current state of the Hollywood industry, especially making fun of blockbusters. Zac Efron’s Chris Cole is linked, despite himself, to the series of films centered on the fictional superhero Icarus Rush.
A parody of the worst contemporary comics – which adds to the CoBro starring Ben Glenroy/Paul Rudd in the third season of Only Murders in the Building – all action and special effects, where the plot and writing are subservient to the high concept of the moment born from the marketing department (“It’s Die-Hard meeting Miracle on 34th Street and Speed”). On paper, all are interesting elements, but they simply form the backdrop to the romantic story and serve just as a pretext for stereotyped situations and easy jokes. The heart of A Family Affair is naturally entirely dedicated to the difficult love story between Brooke and Chris. Two people, at least on paper, coming from completely different worlds, even if it is difficult to perceive this great distance between the two, fame aside (the reality in which Kidman and her daughter live is nevertheless privileged, in a splendid villa with a terrace overlooking the ocean).
What remains is a reflection on fame that is not at all original – reduced to how impossible it is for Cole to go shopping at the supermarket like ordinary mortals – and a classic love affair with miraculous effects, ready to bring out the best in the self-centered star, accustomed to disposable relationships. All this also overcoming the resistance of Zara, who is worried about her mother. A Family Affair does not exploit the interesting ideas offered by the context of its story, preferring to focus on the usual sea of romantic comedy banalities to the sound of “we all deserve to be happy”. Furthermore, a film set during the Christmas holidays leaves you with the feeling of having been released after the deadline.
Despite having the romantic relationship between Chris and Brooke as its central core, A Family Affair stands out for how it deeply explores the complex mother-daughter relationship between the woman and Zara. The film paints a realistic and touching portrait of the moment when a child, regardless of age, must recognize that their parent is first and foremost a person with their desires and flaws, and not just a simple parent; Zara finds herself having to deal with the difficult transition from being a daughter to seeing her mother in a different light, as a woman with a life of her own. Brooke, for her part, tries to teach her this important life lesson, helping her grow and make autonomous decisions. In this sense, A Family Affair brilliantly captures the tension and conflict that arises from this dynamic: the girl wishes to be seen as an adult, but is still trapped in the role of daughter, unable to fully accept that her mother has aspirations and needs.
A Family Affair begins with a lighthearted and fun tone, especially thanks to the brilliant performance of Zac Efron in the role of Chris, a self-centered celebrity and a decidedly unhinged employee. The opening moments of the film are full of genuine humor, with Chris perfectly embodying the archetype of the narcissistic and quirky star, and his eccentricities and absurd behaviors provide the audience with many laughs, showing the more hilarious and lighter side of the story. However, as the plot develops and the relationship between Chris and Brooke becomes more serious, Chris’ character progressively loses his comic verve, and, even, his transformation into “Mister Perfection” within the relationship with Brooke makes him makes it, at times, unbearable. This step means that the film loses part of its initial charm, as the dynamic between the characters changes radically, moving from a comic context to a more serious and idealized one, which can be less convincing and entertaining for viewers.
Although A Family Affair and The Idea of You (of which you can find our review) share a similar premise – that of a love story between a “normal” person and a celebrity, with a notable age difference – the two films develop very differently. The former immediately distances itself from the stereotypical fairy tale of dating a star and doesn’t focus on the specific benefits or challenges of fame. Brooke is not fascinated by Chris’s career, nor does she need to be taken on exotic vacations or elegant galas; in fact, she already has a rather comfortable life with her, a villa on the cliff and a wardrobe full of designer clothes. Furthermore, even though Chris is constantly in the spotlight and can’t even go shopping without being recognized, their relationship never addresses the issue of media coverage of their love story. The biggest threat to their relationship is Zara’s disapproval rather than differences in age or social status.
The viewer knows from the first minutes that he is about to exchange almost two hours of his existence for a light narration and accepts its contractual conditions hoping to receive in exchange a total estrangement from a daily routine that is always the same. What he gets instead is a work where the direction and editing hide behind the bodies of its actors, leaving them to dominate the screen, to be intermediaries of hilarity and moments of life improbably lived. And yet, as much as they try to be the spokesperson of a light comedy, the jokes they chew are two-dimensional, flat, children of a thousand others already brought to the screen in past years. References to celebrities, events and elements that mark our times are certainly bait that makes us take the bait, capture our attention, and then risk losing ourselves again in the next sequence.
If Joey King gives his Zara a physical expressiveness, letting the words find their correspondence on a facial and gestural level (to emphasize the ironic and sarcastic charge of her character), Nicole Kidman appears almost blocked, undecided on how to build his Brooke. Her performance is intended to be minimal, played with subtraction, yet it is as if Kidman faced the entire film with the handbrake on, between the desire to dare and the fear of actually doing it. After Baywatch and Wild Grandpa, with A Family Affair, Zac Efron swims in calm waters: the more sophisticated comedy, compared to the zany one, does not limit his performance, all played on marked expressions already tested in the days of High School Musical and promptly proposed again in a more mature manner, although not always successful. In Chris’ (self-)ironic flair, Efron consolidates his performance, proving convincing and hilarious, but in the moment in which the sense of abandonment, and the pain for the loss of a love that could have been born and realized, begins to creep into his character, something is lost in the space of his face. It is as if the actor was unable to make this internal diatribe visible, losing that strength boasted shortly before in moments of pure lightheartedness. It’s not a bad film, A Family Affair. It’s just a movie that came out in the wrong era.
A Family Affair Review: The Last Words
Funny, deep, fluid, and with just the right amount of romance, A Family Affair is a wonderful surprise and a film not to be missed on Netflix, whether you love romantic comedies or not. Give it a chance, you won’t regret it. Despite a rather funny start, with Zac Efron perfectly cast as an eccentric and self-centered actor, A Family Affair gradually loses its comic verve as the character becomes unbearably perfect. However, the narrative is lifted a little by the deep exploration of the mother-daughter relationship between Brooke and Zara, showing how Zara must begin to see her mother as a person with desires and flaws of her own, and not just as a parent; an approach that adds an emotional and authentic dimension to the story.
