Home Again: A Lighthearted Rom-Com That Skims the Surface
Home Again presents a whimsical, albeit superficial, romantic comedy about a single mother who dares to step outside her ordinary life with the company of three young men – as cliché as that may sound.
Alice Kinney, the daughter of a renowned director, has spent her life surrounded by bohemianism and creative minds. However, as she approaches forty, she grows weary of the endless parties and unpredictable nature of her lifestyle. After separating from her producer husband, she moves with her two daughters from New York to her father’s old house in Los Angeles. But even here, peace eludes her. After a lively birthday celebration, Alice wakes up in the arms of young Harry, who has come to Hollywood to make it big. Unable to resist the charm of her new acquaintance, she allows Harry and his two companions to stay in the guest house while they look for work. Tired of instability but still yearning for love, Alice gets a second chance at happiness, only to have her “ex”-husband return to the family fold…
Initially, Rose Byrne was slated to play the lead role, but after five months of preparation, she left the project and was replaced by Reese Witherspoon.
Echoes of La La Land
It would be surprising if the commercial and critical success of La La Land had no impact on Hollywood’s sensibilities. Damien Chazelle so vividly and emotionally showcased the openness to simple feelings and dreams of fame that it would be difficult for many not to try and use the same formula for new characters. Some didn’t restrain themselves and decided to strike while the iron was hot, slightly tweaking the plot and changing the characters. Home Again is a pleasant but much more superficial take on the theme of “love in a big creative city,” enhanced by decent actors but marred by a loose script and a general lack of focus.
Home Again marks the directorial debut of 30-year-old screenwriter and director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, who created it under the watchful eye of her parents – Father of the Bride producer Nancy Meyers and The Parent Trap screenwriter Charles Shyer.
A Script in Distress
The script of Home Again is a major issue, and the film screams about it from the very first frames. For example, the authors have to explain who’s who, what emotions to feel towards the characters, and what to expect from them in the first five minutes through voice-over narration. It only gets worse from there. The plot revolves around Alice bringing home and letting three young men live with her indefinitely while they supposedly work on launching their debut film. Can you believe that in real life? Well, the screenwriter (who is also the director, Hallie Meyers-Shyer) tried to explain the presence of the lodgers through drunkenness and the cunning of the main character’s mother, but in any case, it all seems very dubious.
Add to this the reaction of the guys, who practically grovel at Alice’s feet. One takes on the duties of a nanny for the single mother’s two daughters, running the girls to various clubs and courses. The second, who previously worked with computers, becomes a free “IT guy” for his “landlady,” who can’t seem to create a website for her design endeavors. And the third, the tallest, most handsome, and lively one, is only good for saying romantic, touching things, helping wipe dishes after the dishwasher, and warming the bed in every sense of the word – any more, and the viewer would find themselves in a porn version of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Only there would be only three dwarfs, and they wouldn’t be dwarfs.
Vanilla Dreams and Fantasies
Everything that follows is vanilla female dreams and fantasies, expressed through a love of cinema, life, and youth. Of course, the trio of guys first become Alice’s loyal helpers, then they charm the heroine’s children, mother, and friends. Then, the husband and father return home, leading to a “stormy” conflict with mutual “jabs,” “teasing,” and even a fight. But in the end, everything ends well – sorry for the spoilers, but this is a female rom-com, where it can’t be otherwise – with a big mutual fraternization, a dinner with the whole family at a huge table under the starry Californian sky.
Unfortunately, Home Again gets lost in the woods of female fantasies and misses several interesting plot threads that could have resulted in some kind of drama. There are hints of the difficult legacy that has befallen the daughter of a great director – Alice can’t find herself in life, her work can hardly be called work, and she is overshadowed by the star names of her parents. The authors had the opportunity to go beyond the templates and clichés with the heroine’s children, who, on the one hand, found themselves away from home in a new school, and on the other hand, immersed themselves in the world of art, where every house, every street, every alley breathes creativity. But, alas, everything again comes down to banality. There is nothing to say about the young filmmakers – what could have been a new La La Land simply went down the drain. The guys “played” at being creators who couldn’t be controlled by producers, but in the plot, they turned out to be trapped in the cage of stereotypes of the simplest romantic comedies.
A Visually Appealing Cast
The only thing that Home Again can’t be denied is its actors’ beauty. At times, the film looks like another adaptation of Nicholas Sparks or a commercial. Reese Witherspoon tries hard to be funny but is even more devoted to romance – she cries, laughs, and charmingly gets angry at her young lover. Pico Alexander and Nat Wolff demonstrate the embodiment of girls’ fantasies – handsome men with a great sense of humor and a touching infatuation. Michael Sheen meets the needs of those viewers who find 27-year-old boys completely “sappy.” The characters are somewhat artificial but tailored to each other with great love.
Home Again is far from a masterpiece. The story of a woman who allowed herself to reject the burden of the past and try to start all over again had much more potential than Hallie Meyers-Shyer managed to realize. However, the film may well get a permanent residence on “women’s” channels. The film has everything to restore a good mood and slightly increase confidence in one’s abilities. That’s already pretty good.