A Family Affair – Review

The fact that this felt like water in the desert is a testament to how little studios know about what audiences want from the theatrical experience. A Family Affair, Netflix’s latest “Hey, let’s put this straight to streaming instead of making money” film dropped Friday and it is an absolute blast. Is it good? Only sort of, and I would challenge all of you to name a rom-com outside of …When Harry Met Sally that is. That genre is a beast unto itself, built upon the backs of hunks and dorks and movie stars that isn’t here to win awards or build legends. These types of rom-coms are here for audiences to watch while sipping White Zin and thirsting over movie stars.

And me? I’m all outta White Zin.

Nicole Kidman is an icon, having built her reputation with films like Days of Thunder (where she plays the world’s most incredibly beautiful teenaged neurosurgeon) and To Die For. These films made her a sex symbol, but recent films have relegated her to the role of “beautiful adult woman” and that’s a shame. A Family Affair supposes that a woman of her age is still sexy, still has needs, and can still be valued. Shocker, right?

Latching onto that fact is Zac Efron, a man who grew famous in his youth and who is trying to figure out what kind of artist he is as he approaches forty, which is quite relatable to at least myself. Efron plays Chris Cole, introduced by glorious footage of the actor himself on the red carpet at [insert premiere here]. He’s on Hot Ones, he’s doing spreads, and all of it for a superhero franchise based on Greek mythology that sounds like it really sucks. His latest project, a sequel that is meant to be a mashup of Die Hard and Miracle on 34th Street meets Speed, is a disaster that is sending him into a panic.

And who is bearing the brunt of that panic? Zara (Joey King), his assistant and daughter to famous writer Brooke Harwood (Nicole Kidman). Zara is absolutely sick of working for the selfish and narcissistic Cole and quits. He comes to her house and finds her mother, coming to…uh…well, Zara walks in on it. Brooke has spent eleven years caring for Zara, making sure that she felt supported and loved no matter what. She has a little fun and Zara freaks out. To be fair…wouldn’t most of you if you walked in on your mom with your boss?

It’s a wonderful situation for a rom-com, completely fantastic and set in the land of fantasy. A Hollywood setting is a solid one for such a white-wine comedy and using Efron’s actual star persona sells it. This thing is full of contrivances that are illogical, a lead in Zara that is so self-centered that it crosses into the ridiculous, and a romance that feels honest and sweet once you step away to look at it.

Joey King, long separated from The Kissing Booth and her role as young Talia Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises, shines as a young twenty-something that is completely unsure what to do with her life. She knows what she wants and is taking all the right steps to get it and just gets nowhere, which is something that most of her audience is going to feel so keenly it might cause a coronary. Efron, on the other hand, utilizes his otherworldly good looks and charm to create a character that remains loveable despite how absolutely stupid and unaware he is. There is a Christmas scene that will leave you swooning and he owns it in ways I didn’t think he had in him. This is, ultimately, Kidman’s film. The entire idea of A Family Affair is “what if women still had wants, needs, and feelings beyond marriage and their thirties” and it fits to have her in the role. She’s playing an accomplished individual, a mother, and an independent woman that nonetheless wants things. It’s quite lovely to see her portrayal of Brooke, exploring and trying things.

Let’s get to Kathy Bates, portraying Brooke’s former mother-in-law. Goddamn, what a blast! Bates is magnetic as the snide, horny, loving grandmother to Zara and mother to Brooke. Their bond has been broken for eleven years and she still lives as matriarch to this trio of women who all want different things and is the only one aware of the world beyond herself. It’s such a sweet performance and Bates steals the show in every scene she pops up in.

This is not exactly a masterpiece. This is, instead, a hearkening back to the type of film we got regularly in the 90s. Movies like French Kiss and Kate & Leopold are right up my alley when I’m in the right mood and A Family Affair scratched that itch. It’s funny, stupid, shot like shit, and is an absolutely good time.

A Family Affair is streaming on Netflix.