One of my favorite things about this movie is the audio description. It is another winning combination of Liz Gutman and Jamie Lemcheck, and these two fine women have made it a point to point out Zac Efron’s hotness as much as possible. It isn’t just how Gutman writes the description, mentioning his physique, but how Lemcheck actually sells it. Women and gay men everywhere appreciate it. A script from the male gaze probably would have tried to do a similar thing to Nicole Kidman, but it just doesn’t work for this film. This is a romantic comedy at its core, and “dudes who find Nicole Kidman hot” is a tiny fraction of the target demographic.

A Family Affair, which is directed by Richard LaGravanese (P.S. I Love You) and hasn’t exactly gotten critics excited. Though, i would argue most romantic comedies don’t get them excited, especially as we move forward and it becomes harder and harder to not feel like something we’ve seen before. In this film, a young woman (Joey King) works for a vapid, egotistical movie star (Zac Efron) who has promised to eventually make her a producer, but things are not looking great, and he is doing a truly awful sounding sequel in a franchise he has starred in. It is a commentary also on just stepping away from franchises when they are clearly dead. But, after she quits, the movie star heads to her house to grovel, and finds her mother (Nicole Kidman) there instead, and one thing leads to another.

It’s a much cleaner encounter this time around than Kidman and Efron had in The Paperboy (if you know, you know), and these two seem to have genuine chemistry, though the elephant in the room is Joey King’s assistant/daughter who can’t stand to see her mother with someone she knows is an asshole. However, as the movie progresses, he changes a lot, and the usual romantic comedy tropes start to work. Kathy Bates appears as the grandmother to King’s character, and mother to her deceased father.

I liked that coming out of The Idea Of You, where we were gaslit into believing Anne Hathaway should feel shame of any kind for being older than a twenty-something boy bander, there’s no mention of the age gap. Everyone in the top four is appropriately spaced out and completely different generations. The movie makes no point about Kidman’s age, because we all know if Efron’s character was to fall for joey King, it wouldn’t be brought up. Kidman is an impressive 21 years older than Efron, who is 12 years older than King.

What does kinda bother me is this idea that Kidman has to be wealthy, despite it being incredibly vague as to what she actually does. She’s a writer, who has written for magazines, and maybe some books, but it keeps it super vague. She has this nice house, and fancy dresses, continuing this trend we’ve been getting of rich people living these lives no one can relate to. That destination wedding in Anyone But You? Or how about that other destination wedding in Mother Of The Bride? OOr the other destination wedding in last years Shotgun Wedding?

It’s like Hollywood is allergic to showing middle class or working class Americans doing anything. If your character can’t have glitz and glamor and fly off to wherever whenever, then what good are they? For a fluff piece this is fluffy enough for a romantic comedy night. the audio description by International Digital center, Gutman, and Lemcheck is perfect for this film, and honestly this movie doesn’t need the scrutiny like it is trying to win Oscar’s. It’s just a cotton candy fluffy piece.

Final Grade: B