Like mother, like daughter
Young Home Again writer-director carries on with the family business
With her filmmaking debut, Home Again, a romantic comedy about a 40-year-old single mom who embarks on a fling with a much younger man, Hallie Meyers-Shyer proves she’s her mother’s daughter.
Mom, in this case, is filmmaker Nancy Meyers, a cinematic powerhouse with a track record of hit rom-coms that includes What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated and The Intern. No slouch in the rom-com biz himself, Hallie’s father, and Nancy’s ex, is writer-director-producer Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride). Home Again centres on interior decorator Alice Kinney (Reese Witherspoon), who, after an ugly breakup, moves to the comfortable Los Angeles home she grew up in with her late filmmaker father and retired actress mother (Candice Bergen).
Q The apple obviously doesn’t fall far from the tree. Your mother’s influence is apparent, particularly in your film’s attention to meticulously curated domestic interiors.
A Of all possible things I learned about from my mom, food on the table is just the smallest possible thing that she could have taught me. The larger lessons — about having great heroines and great stories, about how warm and inviting her films are and how feminine they are — are the themes I hope I carry on from her, more than anything having to do with set design or food. That said, my film does take place largely in a home — and many of her films do as well — where the house is a big character. I really hope that Home Again reflects me and my sensibilities.
Q Alice’s parents, like yours, are filmmakers. They seem to have been based on director John Cassavetes and his wife, Gena Rowlands. Is that deliberate?
A You’re absolutely right. The character of (Alice’s father) is an amalgam of several 1970s filmmakers: Cassavetes; (Peter) Bogdanovich; (Paul) Mazursky. They were my influences while writing the film. The way in which I wanted to portray Los Angeles was inspired a lot by ’70s films. I wanted to find a way to infuse that into the story, so I made him
a ’70s filmmaker. I wanted him to be someone who these three boys (in the movie) — who are true lovers of cinema — would be excited about to thumb through his scripts and photo albums. I consider the movie a love letter to film and Hollywood. Q Are you a particular fan of ’70’s U.S. cinema?
A Yes, I am. It’s my favourite era. I watched a lot of movies from that period for research. Q Who do you relate to most in this film?
A I find a little of myself in every character. I relate to Alice, of course, but also to the three boys trying to make it in Hollywood. I relate to Alice’s anxious older daughter, but also to the youngest daughter, because I also have an older sister. I can even relate to Alice’s ex, (played by) Michael Sheen, back in New York City. I put myself in every character. Q Do you perceive a decline in romantic comedy?
A It used to be a more commercial genre for studios, for sure, one in which big actors would star, going back to Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. It had great actors, major studios, big budgets. But it’s not just romantic comedies that have declined, as I see it. Movies about human beings are not being made as often. They’ve been replaced by superhero movies, action films. It’s not as easy to get a romantic comedy made, but there is an audience for it. The Big Sick was a great example, and it showed that people want to embrace the genre.
Q Is there a gender divide in the audience? Is there something about rom-coms that has ghettoized them as women’s films?
A Home Again is a woman’s story, through and through. Women do like romantic comedies, but in my experience, men love them, too. I’m excited that an underserved audience is being served in this film. Q And that underserved audience is ...? A Women.
Q ... or simply people who don’t want to see another movie about space aliens? A Absolutely, that, too. One hundred per cent.
Q The guy and the girl don’t end up happily ever after. Are you trying to rewrite the rules with your first movie?
A That’s just how the rom-com genre has been characterized. Home Again looks and feels like a romantic comedy, but ultimately that’s not what this movie is about. It’s not about a woman finding a man. It’s about a woman finding herself.