Chosen Family

Set against the charming backdrop of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Chosen Family delivers a heartwarming blend of romance, comedy, and drama. Heather Graham stars as Ann, a yoga teacher struggling to balance the chaos of her demanding biological family with her search for romantic fulfillment. Ann's well-intentioned nature often leads her to try and fix everyone's problems, particularly those of her sister Clio (Julia Stiles), who is dealing with addiction.

Ann finds support in her close friends, who encourage her to pursue a relationship with Steve, a divorced father. While Ann is immediately drawn to Steve and his daughter, Lily, she soon finds herself navigating the unexpected challenges of winning over a jealous and competitive seven-year-old.

Chosen Family explores the complexities of family dynamics, both those we're born into and those we create. The film highlights the importance of supportive friendships and the challenges of finding love and building a blended family. While it embraces familiar romantic comedy tropes, it's grounded in relatable situations and genuine emotional struggles. This film is recommended for those who enjoy character-driven stories that celebrate the power of friendship and the possibility of finding love amidst life's messy realities. It's a feel-good movie with a good balance of humor and heart.

"Chosen Family," written and directed by Heather Graham, felt to me like a very personal story that took courage to reveal & tell. But that risk of vulnerability she undertakes makes it very relatable. I was rooting for Anne (Heather's character) all the way.

Moments of self-baring, discomfort, heartbreak and even dread are handled with directness. However, the light comedic tone underpinning Anne's experiences helps keep her -- and our -- head above water. More than that, it leads to self-empowerment as well as a realization of what exactly the word "family" -- or what constitutes a healthy support structure in one's life -- should mean.

I was both moved and entertained by Heather Graham's story & film.

I did not get through the whole movie. I loved the premise, but the execution was bad. It is not okay to call a little girl a b***ch word and compete with her to get her father's attention. It was clear that the little girl was going through a separation trauma and needed help, she did not need a grown woman-baby taunting her and throwing tantrums.

Initially, I was mesmerized by the main character and could relate to the struggle of having to put up with unreasonable relatives. However, as the movie progressed, it just turned into something completely weird where a grown woman was behaving like a five year old.

This movie was so bad, it literally forced me to make an IMBD account just to leave my first review. Every aspect of this movie is horrible. The directing and producing of this movie was painful to watch. It seemed extremely low budget. There was no plot or even overarching theme. Just a weird excuse of a movie. Do not waste your time. Ive never seen a movie with no plot. There was just random stuff thrown together. Was it a romcom? A comedy? A drama? Trauma dump? Honestly I have no clue and neither did the characters. Also the acting was horrendous, which is weird because many of the actors have been apart of larger films but all acting skills went out the window with this movie.

This movie trailer gives the impression of a romcom, but between the mediocre acting, the used up plot, and the fact that there is no rom or com it was just disappointing. The basic storyline is downtrodden girl who is emotionally abused by her family, and who is a yes girl. She meets a "the man of her dreams" but he has a daughter that he caters to, unrealistically so, I really wish the script writer had stuck with just one storyline and not made this characters life so tragic. She remains upbeat the whole time and you root for her to just loose it on the family, and cut them out of her life. The end also just kind of leaves you hanging. In the end it was a waste of time and money.