Susan Granger’s review of “A Family Affair” (Netflix)
“A Family Affair” is a Hallmark movie – only it’s on Netflix. Let me explain.
Hallmark movies follow a specific ‘feel good’ formula. There’s a hot, hunky protagonist who falls in love with an unlikely romantic partner. They’re faced with a dilemma involving a job and/or family business – plus an adverse emotional trauma with a third person who then helps contrive a happy ending. Got it?
Meet charismatic Chris Cole (Zac Efron), an obnoxiously self-absorbed Hollywood movie star who brow-beats Zara (Joey King), his beleaguered 24 year-old assistant. She yearns to be a film producer and lives with her widowed/famous writer mother Brooke Harwood (Nicole Kidman) in a picturesque Malibu beach house.
Although Zara’s valiantly trying to salvage Chris’s current project – best described as “Die Hard” meets “Miracle on 34th Street” meets “Speed” – most of her time is spent on mundane errands like delivering gifts for womanizing Chris’ soon-to-be-dismissed girlfriends, grocery shopping and picking up his dry cleaning.
When fed-up Zara abruptly quits, Chris drives to her home to try to convince her to come back. But Zara’s elsewhere, tediously confiding in her best-friend Genie (Lisa Koshy).
So Chris shares enough tequila shots with Brooke to proceed to the bedroom, where Zara eventually catches them ‘in flagrante delicto.’
Stunned to find her middle-aged mother in bed with her much younger boss, Zara goes berserk, begging Brooke to end the affair immediately. Which doesn’t happen – particularly after Brooke confides in supportive Leila (Kathy Bates), her astute editor/wise mother-in-law.
Shallowly concocted by debuting screenwriter Carrie Solomon, it’s clumsily directed by Richard La Gravensese, who desperately tries to breathe life into a mundane romantic fantasy that’s filled with beautiful, privileged people wearing stunning ‘designer’ clothes, cavorting on lavish sets.
Problem is: Complete by-the-numbers predictability, including celebrating a snowy Christmas in a secluded mountain cabin.
FYI: Nicole Kidman previously starred with Zac Efron in “The Paperboy” (2019); she is actually 20 years his senior but – with her svelte figure and extensive cosmetic enhancement – that age difference barely registers.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “A Family Affair” is a tepid 3, streaming on Netflix.
