SSometimes, and perhaps increasingly, the fun of movies is in the little things. Netflix’s friendly romantic comedy A family matter, This film, written by newcomer Carrie Solomon and directed by Richard LaGravenese, a veteran director and screenwriter who knows what he’s doing, explores already familiar territory from a film released earlier this year: an “elderly” single mother finds herself finds herself in an affair with a much younger man, attracting judgment and ridicule from those around her. We have just seen this idea, played out rather deliciously, in The idea of you, with Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine. A family matter, it’s Nicole Kidman’s bestselling writer Brooke Harwood who falls for movie star Chris Cole (Zac Efron), although there’s an added complication: Brooke’s daughter Zara (Joey King) , is Chris’ personal assistant, and she can’t stand him.
You may complain that two films on the same theme, released within a few months of each other, may be one film too many. (The idea also features in French filmmaker Catherine Breillat’s beautiful erotic drama Last summer, (which premiered at Cannes in 2023 and is now making its way to U.S. theaters.) Or you could see this mini-trend as evidence that many filmmakers are sensing the same scent in the air: Women over 50 don’t want to be rejected; they want to be seen, appreciated, loved. The idea is so simple that you wonder why people haven’t five There have been movies like this every year for the last 50 years. But here’s the thing: the older woman, younger man pairing is still such a novelty that it’s hard to believe your eyes when you see it.
A family matter opens with Zara reaching the end of her rope with the childish and demanding Chris, the bloated and uptight star of a hit action-fantasy franchise. He’s in a restaurant, about to break up with a sweet, if bland, girlfriend who’s expecting a marriage proposal. His parting gift is a pair of diamond earrings – nice job if you can get them – but he doesn’t have them with him. They’re in Zara’s bag, and she’s stuck in typically horrible LA traffic. Eventually, she makes the delivery, and Chris, unresponsive and distraught, does the deed. Zara picks him up to drive him home, and he squirms in the passenger seat, clapping along to Cher’s “I Believe in Love” as it blares from the car radio, feeling every beat of her cold, hollow heart, but also undeniably turbulent. Zara rolls her eyes.
Later, they argue. He fires her, or she quits, it’s hard to say which. But Chris loves Zara and he needs her. In the hope of getting her back, he goes to her house, or rather to the not-so-shabby house that she shares with her mother, Brooke, who dusts her shelves in a glamorous way as always to the sound of “Dreaming” by Blondie when Chris arrives. She doesn’t hear him ring the doorbell, so he walks straight in: he’s a movie star, so he can do that! Even he knows it. After a few goofy moments where she checks to make sure he’s not a burglar, the two sit on the couch and just start talking. There’s tequila involved, and one thing leads to another.
You’ve probably seen this sort of thing before, but Solomon and LaGravenese (whose resumes stretch back to deeply enjoyable romances like 1998’s) Live out loud) seek not so much to refresh the conventions of the genre as to build on their long-term reliability. Brooke has been a widow for a long time. (She’s very close to her mother-in-law, played brilliantly by Kathy Bates.) Zara loses her mind when she discovers her mother is romantically involved with her terrible boss, but she must learn that the world doesn’t revolve around of her. .
It’s in the part where we learn the lesson that the film falters. The best part of A family matter is the conclusion, the scenes in which Brooke and Chris get to know each other. On their first real date, Chris asks Brooke if she’d like to go for a walk after dinner. “Where do you walk in L.A.?” she asks. “New York!” he says briskly, because in the dream world of Los Angeles, you’re never far from a soundstage. While the repartee between Efron and Kidman is quite amusing, the two have played lovers before, in the 2012 film. Newspaper deliverer– it may take a little time to adjust to their faces. There’s been a lot of discussion on the Internet about Efron’s jawline, which has changed dramatically, both in size and square, in recent years. Efron was quick to dismiss speculation, saying he had a serious accident years ago that required his jaw to be refixed, hence the shape change. And Kidman, well, it’s Kidman. Perhaps we need to accept the reality that to be a fifty-year-old capable of attracting a thirty-year-old, one must have semi-miraculously slowed the ravages of time oneself.
But that’s Hollywood, and this is, after all, a movie set unashamedly in a fantasy land. When it sparkles, which it often does, it’s perfectly enjoyable. Efron has always been a terrific actor, long before audiences started “taking him seriously,” whatever that means, in The Iron Claw. His timing is dazzling. In an early scene, he sends Zara to the grocery store to buy a special protein powder (he’s too famous to go there himself) and she contacts him by phone to make sure she’s buying the right kind. As she pushes her cart around the store, she marvels aloud at the billions and one varieties of Oreos in the cookie aisle. When she arrives at the “strawberry shortcake,” we see Chris at home, listening on his phone, his eyes flashing like lightning. ” You want some ? » Zara asks him, hesitant. ” Yeah ! » he said, as if he had just become familiar with one of the great wonders of the modern world. It’s unlikely that the actual product will live up to this promise, but isn’t that always the case when marketing is involved? Later, he will find the real thing with Kidman’s Brooke. Together, the two are almost too unreal to describe in words. Once again, this is Hollywood, a place where, in real life, age is definitely not It’s just a number. But we can dream, right?