A FAMILY AFFAIR– 3 STARS

There’s quite an unarmed duel of the heart happening in the new Netflix film A Family Affair which tends to happen in romantic comedies and dramas. Often, the two amorous protagonists we’re submitted to root for are set into serendipitous plotlines moving on differing schedules. Someone tends to fall in love first or become committed sooner, while the other holds more reservations or is still incomplete in character growth to be ready for the proper epiphany. Likewise, romances love to throw in a late-film mini-collapse thrusting the suitors apart and demanding a comeback when those schedules derail or fail.  

If everything and everyone fell into place simultaneously, we wouldn’t have a rapturous movie to enjoy, meaning the patience for that chase of schedules is part of the romance genre’s whole appeal. Somewhere, traditionalists harkening back to the likes of Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, and George Cukor, are pounding a table to tell us “That’s how it’s done!” Directed by a returning professional in the department of silver screen love, Richard LaGravense, A Family Affair understands these principles well and bends them to its will and modern sensibilities.

The Kissing Booth’s Joey King stars as Zara Ford, a 24-year-old Los Angelino wallowing as the personal assistant to popular Hollywood action star Chris Cole, played by the hunky and Oscar-snubbed Zac Efron of The Iron Claw. When we meet the two in A Family Affair, Chris is trying to end his relationship with his current girlfriend in a swanky cafe and is stalling for Zara stuck in traffic to arrive with the appropriately decadent and dismissive break-up gift. Despite Chris assigning trivial faults to Zara for this nearly-blown endeavor, the vane incompetency is all his. That’s the first peek into the thankless job Zara has been wasting two years of her life for. 

Zara has a triple-layed support system surrounding her to get through her daily grind. She still lives at home with her widowed mother Brooke Harwood (the top-lining Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman), a successful and award-winning author. Above Brooke is her mother-in-law, editor, and Zara’s grandmother Leila Ford (fellow Oscar winner Kathy Bates). For a little freedom away from her mother’s roof, Zara squats at her bestie Eugenie’s (Double Dare host and YouTube sensation Liza Koshy) place from time to time. 

LESSON #1: TO WANT THINGS FOR YOURSELF– In many ways, everyone in A Family Affair is looking for some kind of fufillment, which is where the film—scripted by first-time writer Carrie Solomon—formulates one half of the competing schedules for its romantic comedy. Zara took the job working for Chris with goals to become an associate producer or the head of his personal brand, not to chase his superfluous errands and receive his petty rants for apologies at every mistake. Meanwhile, Chris’s suffocating stardom has limited his ability to have friends and genuine relationships. Most poignantly, Brooke lost her husband eleven years ago and has not regained the same personal or professional spark since Zara’s career fits-and-spurts required her full attention.

Late in the first act of A Family Affair, Zara becomes fed up with Chris’s selfish behavior and the dead-end advancement prospects and abruptly quits, retreating to Eugenie to avoid the family disappointment she thinks is coming from Brooke. When Chris tries to track Zara down at home to beg her to come back in time for his next film shoot, he meets Brooke instead, and the rom-com Richter scale explodes with knee-weakening magnitude and starstruck tremors. This flirty collision of beautiful people meeting over complimentary conversation and the clinking of tequila shooters leads to a tumble between the sheets discovered by Zara herself. 

Registering stronger than that erotic earthquake is Zara’s appallment (and ensuing knockout bump to the head) over what has transpired between her cherished mother and the asshole-ic source of her daily disdain. Toothy apologies are extracted and bandied about to assuage Zara, but, here’s the kicker. Brooke and Chris don’t want the tryst to end. As Kidman’s Brooke puts it, “No great tryst every started with someone being rational.”

LESSON #2: GET OVER YOURSELF– This hubba-hubba swerve sets off the second competing schedule of A Family Affair. Our flock of intertwined folks each need to think of, and ultimately respect, the desires and decisions of loved ones over their own personal opinions and preferences. There’s nothing wrong with wanting things for yourself like Lesson #1, but as the movie threatens to spill its different pots of tea, there’s a measure where people need to get over themselves, for lack of a better term, and accept the happiness of others and their terms.

That’s where the strength of a director like Richard LaGravenese excels for the movie. The celebrated screenwriter of The Bridges of Madison County, The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Fisher King, and The Horse Whisperer works with more than fluff. A Family Affair may have its roots in comedy, but he knows how to punch back with effectual drama when necessary. LaGravenese handles neurotic talks of insecurity and bared flaws as seriously as he does the intimate togetherness of scenes leading to bonding and swoon. Even with a premise as silly as A Family Affair, LaGravenese has a mellow maturity to lift it higher than May-December jokes and sex farce gags. After ten years since his last directorial effort of the stellar, somber musical The Last Five Years, it’s a treat to have Richard LaGravenese back.

The disarming cast of A Family Affair met their director’s firm effort for sincerity with thoughtfulness and investment of their own. Nicole Kidman is the movie’s bedrock, where all affirming connections must go through her. She had to convincingly fall for Zac Efron (which, when shirtless, is easy) and become the wellspring for Chris Cole’s arc of improvement. For her own agency, Kidman had to embody the earnest woman ready for new love and play the devoted mother spurring her very skeptical daughter through everything Lesson #2 required. The Aussie never faltered.

Kidman’s castmates respond in kind. Efron effortlessly sheds the selfish skin to play an glamorous love interest offering rich quality time that’s not all lustful physicality. The actor’s humor is folded well into his dreamy figure. As she often does in these kinds of supporting senior roles (like in LaGravenese’s own P.S., I Love You seventeen years ago), Kathy Bates is a balm of feisty honesty and heartwarming mirth. Her matronly chemistry with Kidman is superb. 

Regrettably, the blemishes of A Family Affair come from its setting of privilege and the source of the plot’s roadblocks. It must be said, but the film is asking viewers to feel for very successful people turning out alright amid comfortable parachutes and upper-class safety nets. Despite fully fitting the inherent impracticality and convenience of rom-coms, circumstances land enjoyably, but fairly easily. Therefore, the individual who embodies the most nuisance feels the most out of sync. While this film counts as Joey King positively stepping out of teen-centered roles, Zara may be the weakest link of A Family Affair. Yes, someone had to be the center of poor choices and calamities (more than Efron, surprisingly), but her level of “him or me” selfishness which ruins friendships and pits a parent versus her boss can be very grating. Despite their headlining status, this film needed more Kidman and Efron front-and-center.