Un asunto familiar

Nicole Kidman, judging solely by the expensive LA-area home of hers, is successful author Brooke Harwood. Her husband passed away some 11 years earlier and she is living a mostly quiet life with a 24-yr-old daughter who has moved back in while trying to get her movie or TV production career energized.

Her daughter works as an assistant for an often juvenile, demanding, and entitled actor, played by Zac Efron as Chris Cole. Strictly by accident Chris meets Brooke, not even knowing who she is. He is smitten, even though later the two characters say that he is 16 years younger than Brooke. (In real life Kidman is 21 years older than Efron.)

The daughter is played by Joey King as Zara Ford. King is one of the better actresses of her generation and her role here is no exception. In fact, even though Kidman and Efron are the bigger stars, and much of the focus in on their budding relationship, the story is more Zara's story. She knows Chris very well and she desperately wants to convince her mother that he is not good for her. Zara's character arc is to respect her mother and her choices.

The whole movie is more about Zara than anything else.

Also in a very good role is veteran Kathy Bates as the grandma, Leila Ford. She has a special relationship with Zara and is instrumental in helping her face reality.

My wife and I watched it streaming, it is a better movie than we thought it was going to be.

Romantic movies are great - when they work. Both Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman are also fine actors - when they have good materials to work with.

Unfortunately, this movie doesn't work for me. The premise is ok - it's par for the course for romantic movies, and having a big age difference isn't a problem - it can actually be done well: think, "Harold and Maud".

The issue is that I didn't really sense great chemistry between the two characters. The setup just didn't land. Everything seemed forced to go along with what the plot requires. I think a different script could have made a big difference.

Which is ironic, given a plot of the movie.

"A Family Affair" is simply not funny nor romantic. Joey KIng's character just comes across as bitter and hateful, rather than being a humorous obstacle to Efron's and Kidman's characters that she really needed to be.

It's a standardized, stale romance that pales in comparison to the recent "The Idea of You" which had a lot more charm, even when that movie wasn't amazing. But it felt a lot cuter than this one and Anne Hathaway made it a lot more believable.

In "A Family Affair" though, the chemistry is visible in the faces of the two main actors instead of between them. That only furthers the artificiality of it all.

The plot evolves in a predictable way, on the acting side there are no standouts and it's directed without much flair. It's astonishing that all the prominent names behind and before the camera agreed to make such a nothing of a movie.

I know I shouldn't have high expectations for a romantic comedy movie, but this was so bad. Such a waste of potential with such a promising cast.

The most importnat problem for me in this move is that the chemistry between Zac and Nicole was no existent. In all of their scenes looked like they were forced to do them and they did them without energy. They couldn't convince me that they were in love, they gave as nothing when we talk about emotion and their facial expression. In some scenes Zac had more chemistry with Joey.

The story is not bad at all and it could have been a decent romantic movie but it was wasted due to the lack of chemistry between the leads.

Seriously, this would have been such a great film. The ONLY thing that saved this film is Joey King and Kathy Bates.

Nicole looks like a stone-faced unhuman and I think it's amazingly sad that so many beautiful women think they look younger and/or better with cosmetic surgery when in fact, we obviously notice and they never look better. Her hair color was horrid, her black eyebrows such a contrast that I couldn't stop looking at her instead of be involved in the movie! Zac looks like his face was frozen as well. It was very hard to continue watching it.....and again, if not for the amazing performance from Joey King, I probably would have turned it off. Kudos to her and Bates.