Monday, 29 January 2018

Starting over is not for beginners! (Home Again 2017)

 
 
 
166.
Home Again
 
 
 
3/10
 
 
I haven't really taken much interest in a trailer to this move and it was never one on my list of 'must sees' for 2017, but its seems very clear, that this is a romantic comedy for a mainly female audience, possibly in their mid-life moments, because Reese Witherspoon, seems to be playing one in a crisis. I can see Michael Sheen there too, flying the flag for the Welsh, but as for everyone else, I don't think I've seen them in something before and after this viewing, I may never again. There's a high chance that I should have gone home again, instead of grabbing this ticket, but there is only one way to find out.
Alice Kinney, the main female in this, played by Witherspoon, is the daughter of a famous film director, who has no passed away. As he hits her fortieth birthday, she is separated from her husband and the father of her two children, who has stayed in New York to carry on producing music. Alice has moved back to LA with her girls, to be closer to her mother and she has moved into her Dad's old home. She has decided to start a new adventure as an interior decorator. That night, she is off out for her celebrations with friends, when they come cross three guys, Harry, George and Teddy, who are in the city to pitch a film idea and get their foot onto the filmmaking ladder. They all hit it off and Alice even necks on with Harry and they nearly sleep together but he passes out drunk. Idiot. The guys are all in their twenties but make the girls feel a little younger again. The next morning, George finds a room of Alice's Dad's old things and realises the family history straight away. They guys aren't even out of the house yet and the daughters arrive back with their Grandmother. Alice takes them to school, as her own mother makes the lads breakfast and talks about her starring roles in her later husband's movies. She even offers them the guest house, until they can get back on their feet. Thinking it will be good for her daughter to have some men around, which isn't greeted with much enthusiasm from Alice.
The three guys have fitted in well, becoming part of Alice's routine. A love interest in Harry, Teddy is helping her set up a website for her company and George is helping out with one of the daughter's school work and anxiety. In their spare time, they also meet with a producer, who is interested in their work and wouldn't mind funding them, even after only working on one genre before. He does want to change some things though and this doesn't go down too well. Alice and Harry grow closer and she even invited him to a dinner with her friends but when his meeting runs over and he doesn't make it, she calls the relationship off the next morning. Things are starting to go downhill a bit again, as her client has pretty much been treating her as a nanny and doesn't even like her ideas for design. The main problem comes as Austin, played by Sheen, arrives to be closer to her and the kids. Things aren't going to well for the lads either, as Harry finds out that the others are trying to take side jobs to save money and he thinks they have given up on their own project. Austen doesn't like the idea of these three living there. Teddy's dislike of the way that Austen holds himself also rises, as they end up fighting, just as Alice is pulling into the driveway and she agrees that it's tie for the lads to leave. You can see Austen is pleased, but he won't be for long as Alice turns to him and is now determined that she wants a divorce. Some people may think, 'poor sod', but not me. If this woman is willing to let three strangers stay over, rent free, good riddance. The boys have found their own flat and once they have reconciled with Teddy about the work situation, they are best buds again.
A week passes by and Alice goes over to the new flat, with a plant, to apologise to the guys for how it all turned out. She still wants them to be part of her family, as the daughters miss them too. Harry does some apologising of his own, even mentioning that she is too good for him. They are all invited to the eldest daughter's play and when their meeting overruns, this time they aren't taking any shit and leave in time to make it for the start, with George heading back stage to help with the girl's anxiety and even being implied that he will hit it off with the teacher. The film ends with a 'family dinner', if you want to call it that, with everyone enjoying each other's company and the daughter explaining how her play was pretty much the story of their own lives
So yeah, it's safe to say I won't be leaping to grab a copy of this on DVD. This is far from my kind of genre within movies and this simply adds to my reasons why. The characters are very flat, along with the storyline. It's hard, very hard to imagine that this would ever happen in real-life, no matter how much you want to believe. There isn't even a moment where the three guys actually make it in filmmaking. Is the whole happy ending, the fact that they managed to get another free meal out of Alice? It was very cliché, cheesy ad at times, boring and the only scene I could actually relate to in any way, was when Alice was crying into her bathroom mirror, because by the end, that's exactly how I felt. This someone simply set up a free Air BnB.

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