So it had to be done obviously – a review of “A Family Affair” by Family Affairs……I’m just sorry it’s not going to be more glowing.
It had all the makings of a good Romcom – a good cast and storyline, a mother/daughter relationship, older woman/younger man vibe….but sadly it proved to be too clichéd and clunky to be enjoyed or recommended.
The essence of the story is a young woman Zara (played by Joey King) who works for a difficult, petulant, lost movie star called Chris Cole (played by Zac Ephron). She has a hot mother called Brooke (played by Nicole Kidman) with writer’s block, ever since her husband Charlie (Zara’s father) had died over 10 years ago. Kathy Bates plays the mother in law who was still very much involved in the family (because she’s also Brooke’s editor) and she very much tries to encourage Brooke to start writing again:-
“Why do you write?”
“To find out about things I don’t understand” she replies – which by the end of the film was a reasonably good explanation for what was going to unfold.
The sexual tension happens way too quickly and could have been done more effectively over time and there’s quite a lot of slapsticky moments whereby you can’t quite work out if it’s meant to be funny or ironic. We had a lot of fun watching all the romantic shots whereby Nicole was placed downwind of Zac – ie on the beach so that he could look as if he was taller than her. She had to wear a lot of flat shoes or at least carry her high heels. It would have been a lot better just to recognise that she is splendidly tall and he is not. Who cares?
So the “I’ve been waiting for you my whole life” and the “I just want you to be happy” clichés – I mean they’re of course lovely, but it’s still a bit lazy isn’t it? Chris was obviously looking for a sensitive mother figure, whilst Brooke just fancied the pants off him and then wanted to look after him…but the humour is sadly off (especially re the endangered species clothing) and the scenery is just a bit fake looking – OK the supermarket scene was meant to be fake looking, but I mean the Christmas scenes et al.
I quite liked the line from Kathy Bates when she was trying to encourage Brooke to just go for it, despite her concerns, when she said “the end is none of your business” – “no great tryst started with someone being rational” – so it was advice to just go for it – what have you got to lose? Well actually, quite a lot – possibly a daughter. That relationship was clearly and understandably challenged by what was happening and it was risky behaviour on Brooke’s part. The outcome felt kind of weird for me. I’m not sure I would have risked losing my daughter over something so unlikely to work out.
So I’m afraid zero heartstrings were pulled for me which is unusual. They’re all good actors in they’re own right, but this one just didn’t work.
Sorry.
