Home Again
Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her.
Cast
Reese Witherspoon – Alice Kinney
Pico Alexander – Harry Dorsey
Jon Rudnitsky – George
Nat Wolff – Teddy
Michael Sheen – Austen Kinney
Lake Bell – Zoey
Going Home
This is one of 2017’s worst, I swear to god.
Home Again is an incredibly tiresome affair with a stupid plot, actors who don’t have a lot of effect on screen other than Witherspoon, blocky scene transition, and very uneventful scenarios taking place. I would tell anyone and everyone to avoid this movie, it’s just not worth your time. The story didn’t even warrant being made a movie of. It centers around Alice, a just-forty mother of two who one day crosses paths with a group of young filmmakers who she lets stay at her house.
That’s it. That’s the story – a woman who lets three men, twenty years her junior, stay at her house.
I’ve mentioned to people recently that Hollywood will make a movie out of anything these days, but this was something else. They’ve not made a movie out of anything – they’ve made a movie out of literally – nothing. The idea of Home Again is irrelevant to those who appreciate film and all it stands for. To people who savour dramatics and entertainment. It is completely pointless, supplying genuine entertainment for roughly 10-12 minutes of its screen time. The rest of the time is simply three young men swaggering about the set delivering mundane dialogue whilst Witherspoon carries the entire movie to its end as best she can. I don’t usually mind her movies, but she was dealt a shit hand here and terribly mis-cast in something where the mother figure should have been played by one of those forgettable actresses, such as Jennifer Westfeldt – which is ironic as Home Again is just as terrible as Friends With Kids (2011).
Home Again has an appalling script. One-liner’s and other gags simply do not exist in this ‘romcom’ with the characters coasting through 94 minutes with everyday chit-chat instead. This chat consists of where their careers are going, what Alice’s kids are up to in school and other standard crap you just don’t want to hear in a movie because you hear it enough in real life. It’s the complete opposite of a romcom at points, and I just couldn’t get how it had been commissioned as one.
One or two moments are ridiculous. And the main one that stands out is when Alice’s husband arrives at her house to see their children. As he approaches the property, young Harry (part of the group of filmmaker men) decides to launch himself at the middle-aged man and punch him straight in the face. That’s right – a spunky guy at least thirty years younger and far less better off (financially and career) than a father of two attacks the elder gentleman – because of how he feels about the elder gentleman’s wife. It is the most far-fetched scenario I have seen in a film in a long time, and makes the whole thing feel pathetic.
What Went Right
I was pleased that Home Again got just 31% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It was a genuine waste of time watching this movie, and if I ever sat down in front of it again I’d want paying. With my arms folded for most of its duration, I enjoyed just about none of this insufferable piece of cinema. Witherspoon is again the sickly-sweet blonde who manages to carry it off singlehandedly and remains the strongest performer throughout, but against her is the wettest ensemble Hollywood could have thrown together. So wet I’m surprised the fuckers didn’t condensate on screen, and not helped by the overall feeling of emptiness the story created.
Have you ever genuinely detested a film due to every element being pathetic and cringeworthy? Because its characters contributed as little to the film as the story itself? Welcome to Home Again. Get as far away from this flop as you can.
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