Summary
A Family Affair won’t reinvent the romantic comedy wheel, but Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman are electric together.
When you have names like Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King leading your film, it’s not much of a hard sell, especially on a streaming platform like Netflix. And A Family Affair sees the return to the director’s chair of Richard LaGravenese for the first time in over a decade. You tie those pieces together with Efron and Kidman, who are playing love interests, and you have a match made in heaven.
A Family Affair follows the story of Zara (Joey King), an assistant to Hollywood star Chris Cole (Efron), who finds out he is having a secret relationship with her mother, Brooke (Kidman).
We meet Chris Cole sitting in a cafe waiting for his assistant Zara to arrive and help him finish breaking up with his girlfriend. Although she is late, Chris finds no problem extending the time and going through with the breakup.
Cole, a movie star, is worried that his latest film might not make sense and he won’t be asked back for the next movie. While Zara comforts him, Cole wants to find someone to fine-tune the script. After yet another argument, Zara quits working for Cole as she doesn’t believe he will ever give her what she needs. Upon Cole heading to plead for Zara to come back to work for him, he ends up sleeping with Zara’s mother, Brooke, but Zara walks in on them.
My first question before this movie started was, “Is this the sequel to the smash hit The PaperBoy from 2012?” I quickly found out it wasn’t. That said, director Richard LaGravenese’s job must’ve been easy because you have three fantastic actors working their magic to bring this romantic comedy to life.
The chemistry between Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron is entirely electric, making Chris and Brooke’s relationship relatively easy to buy into. Whether it was the smoking hot sex scenes or the simple, cute, charming moments, the duo brought the best out of each other, elevating what was quite a simplistic script.
Although the movie is quite the charmer, its predictable element makes it struggle to have the same effect as The Idea of You, a gem from earlier in 2024. Both films have similar beats within each act, but what stood out in The Idea of You was that the story outside the relationship had a lasting impact, while A Family Affair lacked that. However, it is the year of hot older moms getting it on with young stars, and I am here for it.
Ultimately, A Family Affair is the perfect date night movie to watch with your significant other. Even within the predictable nature of the film, you get quite a few laughs, devilish handsomeness from Zac Efron, and Nicole Kidman is… well, Nicole Kidman. You can’t ask for much more than that.
I had fun with it, and you will, too.
