CNN
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The “Older girl dates youthful star” idea is getting a exercise recently, with “The Idea of You” now adopted by “A Household Affair,” which might simply be known as “The Concept of My Film-Star Boss Sleeping With My Mother.” Whereas the Nicole Kidman-Zac Efron pairing ought to provoke curiosity, the drained beats of this romantic (and solely occasional) comedy don’t rub collectively effectively sufficient to generate many sparks.
A part of the issue is the angle tilts closely towards the Kidman character’s daughter, Zara (Joey King), who works as an assistant to actor Chris Cole (Efron), finest recognized for enjoying a superhero known as Icarus Rush. To Zara’s chagrin, he’s liable to stereotypical excesses, sending her on menial errands like working to a retailer to purchase him remoted whey protein. (If you must ask, it’s not for you.)
Zara has watched Chris use and dump girls, threatening to give up nearly as usually as he talks about firing her. Their newest spat brings him to the home she shares together with her mother, Kidman’s Brooke, a profitable and conveniently widowed creator.
After some gentle awkwardness, Chris and Brooke wind up in mattress collectively, leaving her, as she says, “beginning to really feel issues once more.” Zara is understandably horrified by the prospect of the 2 hooking up, prompting her mother to supply that their age distinction is a mere 16 years, not 20 (which is extra correct in actuality, however by no means thoughts), so possibly simply Might-September in calendar phrases.
Directed by Richard Lagravenese – whose most pertinent credit score right here may be adapting the screenplay for “The Bridges of Madison County” – “A Household Affair” suffers from the wholesale self-absorption of all involved, which makes the notion of this as some grand romance tougher to swallow. Not that the director together with author Carrie Solomon don’t strive, together with a dinner scene with Zara’s grandma (Kathy Bates, once more underemployed) that works arduous at humanizing Chris past simply Efron’s “Iron Claw”-sculpted physique.
Whereas there are a number of amusing strains scattered alongside the best way (when Brooke says she’s Australian, Chris asks if she is aware of Margot Robbie), the comedy largely fizzles past the preliminary introductions, and the romance – after that first encounter – doesn’t come throughout as terribly convincing.
That leaves some star charisma, however not sufficient chemistry, to propel this throughout the end line, dragging the customary Hollywood cliches – and many musical montages, seemingly to fill out the working time – together with it.
Granted, “A Household Affair” most likely certified as a win for Netflix as quickly as Kidman and Efron signed on the dotted strains, no less than by way of the algorithm and minutes-watched totals their pairing will generate.
Even setting the expectations bar at a modest peak, although, the film doesn’t fairly clear it – one other case, in rom-com phrases, the place the concept of them, as a marquee matchup, proves superior to the execution.
“A Household Affair” premieres June 28 on Netflix. It’s rated PG-13.