A romantic comedy that is too predictable and without enough charm
Netflix has two major fronts open in its determined commitment to cinema. On the one hand, a multitude of more or less small productions with the hope of finding some success there. On the other, much more ambitious titles that are destined to be a hit on the platform if they do not want to be considered a disappointment. ‘A family affair’ belongs to the second group.
With a cast led by Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Joey King‘A Family Affair’ has a starting point that is reminiscent of ‘The Idea of Having You’, one of the great successes of Prime Video this year, as it tells how a young man falls in love with a woman much older than him and how their relationship affects her daughter. Then the Netflix film is quite different from the one starring Anne Hathawaybut don’t think it’s worth it.
From more to (much) less
I have to confess that I have had a weakness for romantic comedies since I can remember., and that I have even come to enjoy somewhat generic proposals that at least gave me the minimum required on both fronts. With both ‘The Idea of Having You’ and ‘A Family Affair’ there is an important basic problem, and that is that the comic part has too little weight to function as a counterpoint, especially as the minutes go by.
However, it is true that at the beginning it is at least likeable because of all the labor abuses that Efron’s character subjects King’s character to and because of everything related to his acting career, but this curious parody of the world of entertainment is something that is left aside once the first act is over. It is a pity, because there the film could have found a key factor to balance this tendency towards light melodrama that it adapts later and that leads to ‘A Family Affair’ becoming a film too monotonous.
Let’s not fool ourselves, Almost all romantic comedies are extraordinarily predictable and ‘A Family Affair’ is no exception.From the start we know that this and that is going to happen – I could say it directly, but it’s better not to be an idiot by giving away spoilers unnecessarily – and that’s exactly what happens.
The real key is to spice things up so that the viewer enjoys it and really wants it to happen. That’s where ‘A Family Affair’ really fails, because once everything focuses on the romance between Kidman and Efron’s characters, everything becomes too schematic. His sudden transformation is not well handled and their love story feels a bit prefabricated.. Let’s not talk about the inevitable crisis that always has to exist in a story like this.
Both actors do what they can to achieve that long-awaited magic with which to connect with the audience, but everything is superficial, especially when they want to give a little more emotional depth to both characters. That’s something that feels more like a glop than a minimally worked development. The curious thing is that the duo formed by Efron and King works much bettersince the contrast between the two gives rise to a fairly effective dynamic when it focuses on the work aspect. When it is his relationship with Kidman that motivates everything, things also fall flat.
Besides, Richard LaGravenese (‘Postscript: I love you’) fails to provide any type of special energy to ‘A Family Affair’ through the staging. In fact, he never seems to be very clear about what exactly he wants to enhance, thus wasting all the possibilities of the story and other elements that could have elevated the final result – a shame to see the Oscar winner out there. Kathy Bates to appear in three or four scenes to which he can contribute little.
With everything, ‘A Family Affair’ is not a disaster, it simply falls into the category of “It’s one that’s out there” movies. It can be seen more or less easy if you put your brain out of coverage, but it never has enough charm to overcome the fact that it trusts everything to the couple formed by Kidman and Efron being enough. It’s not enough to be a good movie, but I would be very surprised if it didn’t get millions of subscribers to simply press play when they see it in the Netflix catalog.
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