Theater Locations Carrying Home Again With Reese Witherspoon

There'southward no dubiety that the newly minted filmmaker is Nancy Meyers' daughter, as she directs Reese Witherspoon in a fun, if flat rom-com.

The showtime matter we learn nearly Alice (Reese Witherspoon) in Hallie Meyers-Shyer'due south directorial debut, "Dwelling Once again," is that she's a modern rom-com'southward dream leading lady: a newly separated single mom with a kick-donkey house who is just trying to make it (all of information technology, any of it) work. The 2d thing nosotros acquire about Alice is that she's the girl of a very famous, very respected, and very dead American director, a natural language-in-cheek reference to Meyers-Shyer'southward own heritage — she's Nancy Meyers' daughter — that marks one of the film's few original ideas. Still, it'due south an acquiescent enough ramble of a romantic comedy, and Witherspoon is as mannerly every bit ever in the genre in which she excels.

As is contractually obligated in any Meyers joint (the "Parent Trap" and "Something's Gotta Give" filmmaker besides produced the film), "Dwelling house Once more" is by and large set in and around a stunning Los Angeles mansion in which Alice and her cute kids (Lola Flanery and Eden Grace Redfield) are attempting to rebuild their lives. Newly transplanted from New York City after a seemingly very gracious split with her husband Austin (a mostly wasted Michael Sheen), Alice is back in the sparkling urban center of her youth, and she's eager to make a go of information technology. Spending time with her daughters keeps her busy, as do her nice friends and overbearing mom (Candice Bergen, playing a version of herself), along with a budding interior pattern career (hamstrung past her new customer, played by a delightfully unhinged Lake Bell), but she'south in the market for something a piffling more… zesty.

A night out with her friends takes a surprising left turn when the ladies come across a trio of broad-eyed wannabe filmmakers (Nat Wolff, Jon Rudnitsky, and Pico Alexander) all also happy to toss dorsum the shots and hitting the trip the light fantastic toe floor with their slightly older new pals. It'south all well-meaning and sweet, a wholly PG-13 outing that won't need much of a snip when it comes time to play in inevitably heavy television rotation alongside similar fare like, well, like Meyers' own movies.

Alice immediately sparks to handsome Harry (Alexander), the headshot-ready fellow member of the trio — though, of course, what he really wants to do is direct — who has large dreams for a feature-length version of the festival striking short he's already made alongside his brother (Wolff) and their long-time best pal George (Rudnitsky). Information technology's all very insider-y and Hollywood-leaning, still the series of meetings the "iii boy wonders" go along with their increasingly out-of-touch representatives are funny enough that a lack of CAA working cognition won't keep anyone from laughing. Besides, they seem like genuinely nice boys! Thank you to the wonders of tequila and very bad decisions, the guys end up back at Alice's sprawling hand-me-down habitation, only to notice her familial connection to a filmmaker they all adore. Hollywood: a small boondocks.

"Home Again"

Screenshot/Open Road Films

Through a handful of iffy contrivances, Alice offers the boys the chance to live in her (predictably huge and impeccably outfitted) guest house, a convenient plenty arrangement for them, only one that's particularly practiced for Alice, newly smitten with Harry and giddily leaning into a centre-aged sexual enkindling. Although the motion-picture show is Meyers-Shyer's debut, she previously wrote a script (once rumored to exist directed by her own mother) chosen "The Chelsea," an ensemble dramedy about the various denizens of a NYC apartment building and their connections with each other, a kind of loosely assembled "urban family," and that theme carried over to "Home Once more." Ostensibly a rom-com almost a middle-anile mom borer into her desires and getting on with life afterwards a heartbreak, the film finds virtually of its big emotional beats in the burgeoning bonds betwixt Alice, her three filmmakers, and her own kids, who take to them well-nigh instantly.

The offbeat family unit functions well enough — at to the lowest degree for a time — and as damn silly as information technology sounds on paper, Meyers-Shyer knows how to slice together a big cast that genuinely seems to enjoy existence around each other. While Alice and Harry tiptoe effectually their romance, George bonds with young Isabel almost writing, and Bergen's Lillian floats in and out of frame, having a k old time with anyone and everyone. Further complications and connections are thrown in at random, pushing "Home Once more" into increasingly asunder spaces every time a plotline wears thin, zipping betwixt Alice'due south bad luck at work to the Hollywood machinations that might tear the guys autonomously, plus subplots for Alice's eldest daughter and frequent pop-ins from Bergen. Life is messy, but the sprawl that overtakes "Abode Again" is unwieldy and unwise, and detracts from Witherspoon'southward predictably plucky performance.

Past the time the film finally brings her ex into frame, just to further upend what is already a tenuous lifestyle for Alice and her trio of houseguests, "Abode Again" has sputtered out and abased its near charming elements. It's a last ditch for drama, and Meyers-Shyer almost saves information technology by opting for some final act twists that set the film for a sweet, if more often than not uninspired conclusion. Meyers-Shyer has a knack for ensemble comedy, and her power to pull together a solid cast (Rudnitsky, hitting the film afterwards just one twelvemonth on "Saturday Nighttime Live," is the film's big treat) is her greatest strength, only it's disappointing to see her tread such familiar territory. Next time, she should build her own firm.

Grade: C+

"Home Again" will hit theaters on Friday, September eight.

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Source: https://www.indiewire.com/2017/09/home-again-review-hallie-meyers-shyer-debut-1201872097/

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