A FAMILY AFFAIR
(director/writer: Richard LaGravenese; screenwriter: Carrie Solomon; cinematographer: Don Burgess; editor: Melissa Bretherton; music: Siddhartha Khosla; cast: Nicole Kidman (Brooke Harwood), Zac Efron (Chris Cole), Joey King (Zara Ford), Kathy Bates (Leila Ford), Liza Koshy (Eugenie); Runtime: 111; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Joe Roth, Alyssa Altman, Jeff Kirchenbaum; Netflix; 2024)
“A mildly funny rom-com but with no sizzle.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Richard LaGravenese (“The Last Five Years”/”Freedom Writers”) directs a mildly funny rom-com but with no sizzle about Hollywood’s superficiality. He co-writes the lightweight script with first-time screenwriter Carrie Solomon, employing a snappy dialogue and some heavy-handed messaging about Hollywood’s adversity to making risky films.
It’s set in LA. Chris Cole (Zac Efron) is a demanding, egotistical and pampered action picture star beginning a new film. Zara Ford (Joey King) is his unhappy personal assistant, who quits when he doesn’t deliver on a promise to help her career. Chris needs her, and comes to her house to apologize and ask her back. But he meets her attractive widowed mother, the affluent author Brooke Harwood (Nicole Kidman), and its love at first sight. This further angers Zara. So the two hide their ongoing affair.
Zac plays his self-absorbed movie star character with movie star gusto. Kidman shows she has really fallen for the star and at the same time tries to be protective of her daughter’s feelings. Joey King can be disarmingly funny when acting selfish.
My problem is I could care less about these Hollywood types and their dull story. The story’s modest screwball comedy antics and fine performances were not enough for me to be won over.
REVIEWED ON 7/4/2024 GRADE: C+