On June 27, Netflix premiered the romantic comedy «A Family Affair», in which Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman portray a couple in love. Joey King’s character will be watching this relationship together with the viewer, and in the review below we will figure out whether it is worth wasting time on another literally star-studded movie love story.
Genre romantic comedy
Director Richard Lagravenese
Starring Nicole Kidman, Joey King, Zac Efron, Kathy Bates, Shirley MacLaine
Premiere Netflix
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
Young Zara Ford works as a personal assistant to narcissistic Hollywood star Chris Cole. The latter is starring in a ridiculous but profitable superhero franchise and is focused solely on himself, which means that Zara has no chance of moving up the career ladder. Finally tired of the whims of her infantile boss, the girl decides to quit.
However, breaking all bridges with the hated Cole will not be so easy, as a romantic relationship begins between him and Zara’s mother, the famous writer Brooke Harwood. As a result, this unexpected alliance risks leading to unpredictable consequences.
In general, the average premiere on this streaming service does not involve any maneuvers other than voicing banal truths and stating obvious facts. If you’ve seen at least one Netflix genre novelty of this kind, you’ve seen them all. If you’ve ever written about such a movie, it’s groundhog day for reviewing, and only Ctrl+C — Ctrl+V will help. A merciless content pipeline in all its hideous glory.
What can we say about the nuance when you consume this content almost every week, systematically, and have to cull out of your head at least some maxims about a movie that deserves a concise «movie — bullshit» or «mediocre». And this will be more than enough. This characterization will be enough, for example, to describe «Trigger Warning» — new releases on Netflix just last week. And this new rom-com is from the same opera.
«A Family Affair» — a movie with a good cast. Nicole Kidman and Kathy Bates are out of competition, and Zac Efron feels like a fish out of water in comedies. And this plain as a door plot tries to make it work by the presence of the stars and at least some of their interaction in the frame. And that’s it. Is this big news for anyone? Or should we have expected something else? These are rhetorical questions
But the film itself, outside the context of the team of performers (i.e., the direction, script, etc.), is helplessly unable to offer something that could win the audience’s sincere affection. In addition to looking frankly bland, Carrie Solomon’s debut screenplay flits between levity and seriousness, comedy and (melo)drama, between the need to empathize with one character and another. Between a romantic story and, ultimately, a Christmas story, even if these genres are often related.
Netflix has clearly messed up its seasonal relevance and is offering warm Christmas gatherings, New Year’s celebrations, and Christmas trees in the height of summer. Of course, there is nothing criminal here. But in the current circumstances, it’s not possible to feel the atmosphere, if the plot allowed for such an option.
Will the passage that «A Family Affair» — is a light, but absolutely sterile, optional, blatantly disposable movie be a revelation to anyone? It’s unlikely. And it certainly won’t be for sophisticated Netflix viewers.
At the same time, there is very little comedy here: there is only one funny scene in the movie, and even that was ungodly highlighted in the trailer. And that’s about it. For a full-fledged drama, the conflict here is superficial and pulled out of the blue. For a melodrama, there are not enough emotions. The phrase «neither fish nor flesh» is the best fit for this film.
«A Family Affair» I can’t call it a categorically bad movie, but it is unable to evoke any emotions and leaves you indifferent. If you watch it, you won’t get any pleasure, but if you pass it by — you won’t lose anything. Although, this is another common truth in the local treasury of obviousness, Nicole Kidman in a beautiful evening dress is already good.
