Nicole Kidman as Brooke Harwood and Zac Efron as Chris Cole in A Household Affair.
Aaron Epstein/Netflix
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Aaron Epstein/Netflix
About seven minutes into the brand new Netflix romantic comedy A Household Affair, Zac Efron, enjoying a immodest, not-too-bright film star who’s simply damaged up together with his girlfriend, is whining to his assistant (performed by Joey King) that she wants to choose up his stuff from the ex-girlfriend’s place. He left treasured objects there, he explains. He left his autographed Jordans! He left his Himalayan t-shirt! After which he says, gravely, as if it reveals the urgency of the mission, “I left my copy of The Braveness to be Disliked.” And I stated, in my front room, “Ha!”
The Braveness to be Disliked is an actual guide. It does not truly endorse the apply of being a jerk; it is extra nuanced than that. However this character, with no pinch of self-awareness, bemoaning the disappearance of a guide known as The Braveness to be Disliked? That is a really stable joke, very solidly delivered by Efron. He follows it up with, “I’ve a number of underwears there. And folks promote these.”
Finally, the film star, whose identify is Chris, has one too many fights with the assistant, whose identify is Zara, and he has to go discover her to make amends. However when he goes to her home, he finds her mom, Brooke (Nicole Kidman), a fantastic widowed creator who lives within the form of beautiful and fashionable home that starred in many of the greatest Nancy Meyers films. (It is sharply completely different from Chris’ home, which is equally fancy but in addition ugly and impractical, as seen in an efficient little bit about his absurd entrance door.) Brooke and Chris begin consuming tequila, they hit it off, and Zara, who lives at dwelling and observes few boundaries along with her mother, ultimately walks in on them upstairs in Brooke’s bed room. Zara’s dismay over her mom’s relationship with Chris shouldn’t be concerning the age distinction (which fits largely undiscussed), however about the truth that she’s seen Chris undergo his girlfriend-dumping routine sufficient occasions to concern that her mom would possibly get harm. What follows within the script from Carrie Solomon is one half romance between Chris and Brooke, one half ongoing conflict between Chris and Zara, and one half mother-daughter story about Zara and Brooke. And truthfully, on this movie from director Richard LaGravenese, all of it works fairly properly!
Joey King as Zara Ford and Zac Efron as Chris Cole in A Household Affair.
Tina Rowden/Netflix
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Tina Rowden/Netflix
A few of this — significantly an older lady getting concerned with a youthful male superstar — might bring to mind the current film The Concept of You, by which Anne Hathaway fell for a boy band member performed by Nicholas Galitzine. I did not take care of that film in any respect, partially as a result of it wasn’t humorous sufficient, partially as a result of the romance was unconvincing, and partially as a result of the ending lacked emotional resonance. (It was based mostly on a guide with a totally completely different ending, and it seems you possibly can’t simply take a rigorously constructed story and flip the ending on its head and have the consequence make sense.) That guide wasn’t written to be a romcom, however was tailored and wedged into the romcom field. This, alternatively, is supposed to be one — and it reveals.
Efron is a way more profitable, charismatic, and (particularly) humorous lead than Galitzine (whom I would favored in Crimson, White & Royal Blue) reverse Hathaway in The Concept of You. And it is refreshing to see Kidman fortunately making out with any person, at the least briefly making her means out of the haunted-sad-person rut she’s been in for the previous few years. Chris’ relationship with Brooke feels actual and brings out good issues in them each, starting when she explains the Icarus fantasy so he can perceive its connections to his film franchise, Icarus Rush, which she’s by no means seen. He actually looks as if a dope at first (“I am Australian.” “Oh, are you aware Margot Robbie?” “…No.” “I do.”), however as he will get snug, he grows on Brooke, along with being, you recognize, very popular.
All the best way again in 2012, I wrote that Efron was making an attention-grabbing play to comply with within the footsteps of any person like Ryan Gosling. (At the moment, in his mid-twenties, Efron was showing in a Nicholas Sparks movie.) Gosling was additionally as soon as a Disney child, and he managed to develop into an excellent dramatic actor, an excellent comedian actor, and a really swoony romantic lead. Efron does not have the Oscar nominations simply but, however he was wonderful in a pure dramatic position in The Iron Claw in 2023, and he is humorous sufficient right here because the willfully goofy hunk that he might need been a reasonably terrific Ken if Gosling hadn’t been accessible — or a great Fall Man.
King is a longtime Netflix romcom lead herself, however she does a really good job right here, too. Apart from the romance, significantly welcome is the strand of the story about Zara determining that the world shouldn’t be all about her, even in her relationship along with her mom. In a scene along with her grandmother, performed (skillfully as ever) by Kathy Bates, Zara begins to determine what all of us ultimately should: Your dad and mom usually are not solely your dad and mom, they’re additionally human beings with lives and ideas and desires that don’t have anything to do with you. She has a truth-telling second along with her greatest buddy (Liza Koshy), too, about her issues not mendacity on the heart of the universe, which supplies the entire final act a really good “What if any person had forcefully advised Rory Gilmore to recover from herself?” high quality.
Nicole Kidman as Brooke Harwood in A Household Affair.
Tina Rowden/Netflix
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Tina Rowden/Netflix
It is too early to declare some golden age of streaming romcoms, as a result of those we get are nonetheless wildly uneven, and since on cable, it isn’t as in the event that they ever went away. However there’s some star energy right here, and a few finances, and a few writing and directing, that implies curiosity within the style is selecting up steam and getting good outcomes.