Reese outshines creaky comedy
Home Again (M, 97 mins) Directed by Hallie Meyersshyer
Even Reese Witherspoon at her winsome best struggles to lift this muddled, middling comedy above par. In only a slight variation on her Sweet Home Alabama schtick, the Louisiana-born actress plays newly separated mother-of-two Alice Kinney.
Relocating back to her hometown, Los Angeles, from New York in order to make a fresh start, the daughter of a famous film director is excited about the prospect of developing her own interior decorating business.
So rather than drown her sorrows over turning 40 while still single, Alice decides to turn her festivities with her two best friends into her ‘‘own personal New Year’s Eve’’.
They’re joined in their carousing by a trio of aspiring film-makers, one of whom takes a particularly shine to Alice. All are invited back to her place, with only Harry’s (Pico Alexander) inability to hold his alcohol derailing his and Alice’s coupling.
Waking up the next morning, he discovers his soiled clothes freshly laundered and finds himself having to answer awkward questions about his age – some 13 anniversaries shy of Alice’s. She’s keen to put the whole episode behind her, but hasn’t counted on her mother’s intervention.
A once famous actress, Lillian Stewart (Candice Bergen) is both charmed by the ‘‘boys’’’ cinematic aspirations and concerned for their near-penniless plight. Without consultation, she offers them Alice’s guesthouse for as long as they like.
A kind of Entourage-meetsThree Men and a Baby, writerdirector Hallie Meyers-shyer’s debut is an intergenerational dramedy that feels a little too fluffy (a typical running gag revolves around an inability to drive a ‘‘stick shift’’) to fully engage.
Watching Home Again, it comes as no surprise to learn that the 30-year-old is the offspring of What Women Want’s Nancy Meyers and Father of the Bride‘s (the 1991 Steve Martin edition) Charles Shyer. Physical humour abounds, while the comedy is best described as broad and Hollywood obsessed.
Tensions mount and things get heated (especially with the predictable arrival of Alice’s estranged husband, played by a beardy Michael Sheen), but, somewhat incredibly, everyone seems destined to remain friendly.
You can see why they needed three young actors to play against Witherspoon though. Her charisma and chutzpah shine through, even in this rather woefully underwritten role. And of the trio providing Alice’s ‘‘live-in child care, tech support and sex’’, only Saturday Night Live alumni Jon Rudnitsky (as screenwriter George) delivers anything remotely memorable.
It all adds up to the cinematic equivalent of a warm, but slightly moth-eaten blanket. – James Croot