
With neither strength nor originality to support it, “A Family Affair” is a dim-witted romantic comedy in which the characters have cartoonish personalities and motivations that change only to serve the tired story. As in last month’s streaming romance “The Idea of You,” this film displays an attractive Oscar-winning actress as the older romantic angle to a younger pop idol who in true to form messes everything up.
Actors Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron as model popular writers Brooke Harwood and Chris Cole, meet because their children are in the movie together. Zara (Joey King), 24, has been stuck supporting Zara (the movie star presentation of Chris Cole’s assistant) running around 24/7 doing everything from buying dry-cleaning and groceries to delivering diamond stud earrings the former gave girls he dated as break-up presents on the last minute. It bothers Zara that Chris is that self-absorbed and helpless, but she sticks around in anticipation of his promise to boost her career.
Zara continues staying with Brooke, who has been a widow for the last 11 years. Both of them are fond of Leila (Kathy Bates), who is in fact the mother-in-law of Brooke and grandmother to Zara.
Zara has had enough of Chris and his demanding ways, and as she puts an end to her involvement in the Icarus franchise, Chris on the other hand is off preparing to direct the next one. Chris visits the house to refrain Zara from quitting. It is, however, too late that Zara comes home, and this scene leaves a nasty taste in one’s mouth this time Chris rips off Brooke’s clothes. Shocking turns of events such as this are supposed to allow viewers to laugh as they witness Zara’s attempt to vomit due to overwhelming disgust, but they do not succeed.
What infuriates her equally is how Chris continues to work with a mother whom people over personally, and he does however agree to make a few promises in exchange for an associate producer credit. One of the promises is fulfilled while the other one is not. Instead, it causes a series of twists and turns that lead to a resolvable conflict, which was never in the director’s plans.
As expected, there are about three points in this movie where screenwriter Carrie Soloman is self-aware about the drudgery of the film industry during the film. The Sequence showing Chris’s rise to fame has some brilliant moments including Chris on the cover of GQ and Vanity Fair, rumors about the ladies he’s dated, a star on the Walk of Fame, and even an appearance on hot ones. There is also a moment where Chris is taking an ice bath that recalls the real-life bulk-up of Zac Efron for the movie ‘The Iron Claw’.
Zara knows the names of the paparazzi outside his gate. The French woman who directed the last film in the franchise ‘Icarus’ and does not speak English was able to shoot ‘Die Hard’ meets ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ with a little bit of ‘speed as the latest description of the movie states. The main character had to reshoot a scene because people cannot have a gun in the trailer for a PG-13 movie.
When Zara gets caught in a traffic jam and reaches behind schedule to the restaurant where Chris intends to break up with his girlfriend, he whines that the delay caused him to have too many things to say. The large pink robot statue at Chris’s place is exactly the kind of overpriced garbage that a young man who has suddenly got rich would consider to be interesting.
While the concept of a pampered boy from show business who is more of a recluse than a celebrity is played out, this is a story that needed to bring something new to it. Having established Chris’s character as narcissistic and dim-witted, we are now expected to accept that he a highly achieving novelist who has won numerous awards and has written numerous works, would form an emotional attachment when she describes the character who made him famous. This character bears the name of a boy from Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun, similar to their initial promise to engage in insignificant sexual intercourse and later have a strong relationship.
Even the relationship in this film which takes an overboard view of fictional love stories involving attractive people ‘smooching’ does not come out to be credible. To add more irritation, Zara’s best friends, Liza Koshy, and Sherry Cola, are clearly more animated and engaging than Zara while King does her best as frenzied, nervous, and panic-stricken. The last part is however one of the weakest, with an avoidable misunderstanding, a long overdue touch of reality, and a turn towards what can be described as a sugary sweet Christmas that one can see during the festive season. The low point of this film contains a rather absurd declaration that appears to be aimed at enhancing the believability of the connection between Brooke and Chris. However, this has all the characteristics of a random last-minute addition that Zara and her scriptwriter friend would want to throw away.
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