Romantic comedies have a marked place within the Hollywood screens, and the entertainment of the audience is always guaranteed. In Home Again, Reese Witherspoon is Alice Kinney, daughter of a Hollywood filmmaker and Oscar winner, womanizer and loving father, although always busy with his career. Alice moves from New York City, where she lives with her husband, and moves with her two daughters to Los Angeles. Basically, after a crisis in marriage and as the cliché goes, Alice is randomly approached – in the night of her birthday – by three young adults: a director (Pico Alexander), a screenwriter (Jon Rudnitsky) and an actor (Nat Wolff). She ends up getting involved with one of the boys and the age difference – she, a recently completed 40’s, and him just at the mid 20’s – becomes a big issue. Surprisingly, the romantic comedy does not hold itself within the romance. In the movie, it is also highlighted the cinema as a profession and the conflicts it causes even with family – exemplified initially by the father figure of Alice -, it is present throughout the whole film, in the parallel plot of the boys searching for financing for their first feature film and in main plot, addressing the trauma of Alice being placed in the background by the young boy who she has involved.
The film imposes a questionable situation to be in nowadays: a mother of two little girls sheltering in your home three men who she’s just met. Past the initial awkwardness, the relationships that develop captivate the viewer, and even makes us cheer for the harmony of the great modern family that is formed. What is out of place in the film is the professional adventure and a weight of the responsibility of a role as a single mother in the main character, where Alice’s career is planted only to satirize the cliché high society and emphasize how Alice doesn’t fit in such kind – though the mansion she lives in and the last name she carries. The film does not explore the idea of independent female figure, and prefer to draw a path through the search of a woman newly separated and depressed, for comfort loving.
The cast does a competent job in performances, and convince the viewer of the roles that interpret. Michael Sheen plays well in the role of the husband who acts like a teenager and the three boys counteract well with the powerful Reese. Although with little depth in the characters, the feature develops on the surface good relations between the main and secondary actors and their roles.
Home Again delivers exactly what the public expects of a traditional romantic comedy: a female figure recently maladjusted in life, a charming young boy, and supporting roles that yield laughter here and there, but captivate and make the viewer root for the happy ending in the relationships. The film does not break new ground, but it sure gives a light entertainment to who’s after spending a bit of time, eating popcorn around.