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Witherspoon can’t save bland ‘Home Again’
AP National Writer
It’s a crime to waste Reese Witherspoon. You know what’s worse? To waste Reese Witherspoon AND Candice Bergen.
That lovely bit of casting alone – Witherspoon and Bergen as daughter and mom – should have been enough to lift “Home Again,” a debut from writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, into at least the ranks of fairly entertaining, harmless guilty-pleasure rom-coms.
Instead, one is left marveling at how disappointingly inept it feels, from plot developments so obvious you see them coming 40 minutes ahead, to the gooey, lingering close-ups of characters laughing happily. What are they laughing about? Maybe there were lots of great private jokes flying around the set, because there aren’t a lot of great ones in the script – save a few choice barbs from Bergen, and a very well-timed “Hamilton” joke.
Witherspoon is Alice, a recently separated mother of two who’s returned to Los Angeles from New York, escaping a difficult marriage to a scruffily charming music mogul (Michael Sheen.) Luckily, she can move right into her childhood home – her huge, beautiful childhood home, with linens so soft they’re a topic of conversation, and a sizable guest house.
Which is where the three guys come in. That would be Harry (Pico Alexander), his brother Teddy (Nat Wolff) and friend George (Jon Rudnitsky). They’re budding 20-something filmmakers trying to get their movie produced, and they’re a bit down on their luck.
Of course, this movie’s version of being down on one’s luck is a little different than in the rest of the world. It’s not just that these guys somehow waltz into high-level meetings with agents and producers. It’s that everyone here looks like they’ve grown up in a Ralph Lauren catalog. Now, plenty of movies have been made about well-off people without real-world problems. It’s not a crime.
But takeout from Nobu? That may be pushing it.
Anyway, we digress. Alice, we learn, is the daughter of a late, well-known filmmaker. Mom Lilian (Bergen) was an actress. Dad didn’t always treat her well, but Lilian has a great explanation for why she’s not fussed: “He’s gone now, so I won.”
Would that Alice had her mother’s sang-froid. We begin on her 40th birthday, and she’s weeping into the mirror. Then she goes out and celebrates at a bar, where she and her tipsy friends meet Harry, Teddy and George.
And then ex-husband Austen shows up and he says, “Let’s fix this.” Alice has to make a decision.
We won’t tell you how it turns out. We CAN divulge that there will be more lingering close-ups of people laughing. Again, what are they laughing about?