Witherspoon finds trouble at ‘Home’
Some people are to the manor born. Others, such as Hallie Meyers-Shyer, writer-director of the bland but not unpleasant romantic comedy “Home Again,” are born with so many connections in the film industry that they get a chance to write and direct a movie and, at the least, end up working in television.
Meyers-Shyer is the daughter of Academy Award winners Nancy Meyers, whose recent films include “The Intern” and “It’s Complicated,” and Charles Shyer, director of “Father of the Bride II” and the critically reviled 2004 remake of “Alfie.” Growing up, Meyers-Shyer got to appear in her parents’ films. Now, she has made the first one of her own, starring the divine Reese Witherspoon.
Not too shabby. But while she has her moments, Witherspoon is not quite divine in “Home Again,” an apparently semi-autobiographical romantic comedy about Alice Kinney (Witherspoon), a newly separated 40-year-old mother of two girls, the child Rosie (Eden Grace Redfield) and Isabel (Lola Flanery), who is on the cusp of puberty.
Alice’s famous writerdirector father is deceased (Did anyone tell dad he was getting killed off for the movie?), although Alice keeps a room in her childhood home in Los Angeles filled with his mementos. Alice and her husband, Austin (Michael Sheen, made up to look like Meyers-Shyer’s father, creepy), have split. Austin is a New York music producer.
He and Alice raised their children in New York City. But post-breakup, she has taken them back to California, where they start classes in a new school, and all can settle into Alice’s childhood home with the help of their nana (Candice Bergen). The home has a guesthouse out back, soon to be inhabited by three young “broke” guys, who’ve come to L.A. to pitch a feature-length version of their awardwinning short film. They need a place to stay. Alice, who has a wild night with the best-looking of them — 27-year-old Harry (Pico Alexander), who is also the short film’s director, of course — has that empty guesthouse. The guys move in. Alice and Harry cannot resist one another. It’s fine with me, although a bit creepy going on under the noses of Alice’s children. Before you know it, Austin has flown out from New York City for a surprise visit and hoped-for reconciliation with his wife.
Everyone wants Alice. I get it. “Home Again” is nothing if not self-absorbed. The film has a rich person’s sense of what the word “broke” means, and writerdirector Meyers-Shyer has her mother’s taste in music (“Groovin,’” “Misty,” really?). Yes, that is Carole King singing over the end credits.
In supporting roles, Nat Wolff (“The Fault in Our Stars”) and Jon Rudnitsky (formerly of “SNL”) are quite good as the two other filmmaking guys, as is Reid Scott as an obnoxious producer. Lake Bell does not have enough to do as a narcissistic, superrich socialite.
Also fun is comedy legend Bergen, who also had a well-connected father and whose real, youthful photos will remind people what a knockout she was back then, too. “Home Again” is glorified TV. But it’s watchable.
(“Home Again” contains sexually suggestive material.)