A charismatic, charming and deeply cheesy look at life at 40, Home Again takes a swing at one of the greatest relationship taboos in today’s culture: age gaps in dating.While it may not look revolutionary by any stretch on first glaze, Home Again explores something that many people today still view as abnormal. The film focuses on the budding relationship between Reese Witherspoon’s character, 40-year-old Alice Kinney, and her significantly younger lover and the aspiring director, Harry (Pico Alexander).
Bringing his writer George (Jon Rudnitsky) and his brother/lead actor Teddy (Nat Wolff) along for the ride, the three aspiring filmmakers find themselves lost in LA, like many young artists before them. Luckily, Alice is recently divorced from her record-producer husband Austen (Michael Sheen) and living in her famous director father’s house – which conveniently has a guest house with enough room for three starving artists.
Produced by Nancy Meyers (writer/director of Something’s Gotta Give, It’s Complicated and The Intern) and directed by her daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer in her directorial debut, Home Again is certainly reminiscent of some of Meyer’s early works; as well as having a few stylistic call backs to old-school Hollywood. Unfortunately, some of the film is a bit too familiar, with its Hollywood-centric story and certain clichés not having the same effect as it once did in the genre.
That being said, the genuinely cheerful, heart-warming moments make it still a film for fans of romantic comedies. While Witherspoon was often underutilised and Pico Alexander as Harry was ultimately uninspiring, the well-rounded supporting cast brought the film together, with pleasant performances from Wolff, Rudnitsky and Sheen.
While there’s much that can be said about the film’s cast and characters, at its core Home Again presents an interesting take on what is still a controversial issue in our modern society. Flipping the expectation of age gaps in relationships – rather than an older man with a younger woman – the film shows a divorced mother of two exploring her sexuality with a younger man – something many films shy away from.
Lifting this outdated household taboo, the film is able to take a common premise and deliver an important social message; albeit covered in a layer of cheesy, Hollywood charm that can only be expected of a romantic comedy. A bright and bubbly venture through romance, Home Again is a film that fans of rom-coms will find something to love about, as well as a film that gives its audience a slight insight into the complexity of modern relationships.
Bring your mum along to this one (for her sake more than yours).
