A Family Affair continues a fascinating phenomenon in Hollywood that happens sometimes where, in the same year, multiple films come out that share some sort of obscure plot or theme to them. In 1998, Antz and A Bug’s Life both deal with animated ants and insects on big adventures. In the same year, we also saw Deep Impact and Armageddon, which both deal with catastrophic, world-ending doomsday events surrounding asteroid impacts. 2003 saw Freddy vs. Jason and Alien vs. Predator as major horror icon crossover films. The Prestige and The Illusionist, both from 2006, focus on 19th Century magicians.
And in 2011, No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits are films dealing with friends turned casual lovers that evolves into a relationship. Weirdly, with the last one, the films star Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, respectively, who are famously married.
These and many other “Twin Films” occur mainly when studios see scripts and race to produce their own version of what they think will be a hit with audiences. In 2024, we see both A Family Affair and The Idea of You, both films that deal with a much older parent getting into a relationship with a famous, younger celebrity. Unfortunately for this film, the latter is much more successful.
The film stars Joey King as Zara, the young, 20-something assistant for the famous actor Chris Cole (Zac Efron). Cole is insufferable as Zara’s boss, channeling the quintessential diva behavior one may assume many in Hollywood possess. After firing Zara when she stands up for herself to Cole, he visits her home to apologize, only to meet her mother Brooke Harwood (Nicole Kidman). Harwood, a famous author whose husband passed many years prior, and Cole begin a whirlwind and semi-secret romance, much to the chagrin of Zara.
One thing I will credit A Family Affair for is how well they make Efron’s Cole seem absolutely insufferable. From the opening marriage proposal fakeout scene on, Efron delivers on making Cole an absolute diva. He and Zara have a good chemistry as boss and assistant that works well right from the opening scene. Unfortunately, I was so much less convinced of the relationship between Kidman and Efron. They have hardly any chemistry throughout the whole film. At times it even feels sluggish and borderline insufferable. Incredibly so, too, because Kidman and Efron are both talented actors.
My biggest issue with this film, however, is just how slow it takes to go anywhere. The film is just under 2 hours long, but it takes well over 30 minutes for Cole and Brooke to even meet. From there, the relationship develops at breakneck speed, but the rest of the film slows to a halt around it. In fact, it felt at times that scenes were totally misplaced in the logical chronological order of the story.
That said, the film really hits its stride in the final third, especially when during the Christmas family visit. There’s a lot of charm in this sequence especially that I wish carried over to the rest of the film.
Visually, the film looks fine, although I really do hate when Hollywood films use audacious houses and clearly show just how rich the characters are. It’s an annoying trend that just feels so unrelatable in these types of movies.
Final Thoughts
A Family Affair is really tough to watch. There are some themes there and moments that could be interesting, but the totality of the product is wholly forgettable. I watched this on vacation with my girlfriend and we both could not wait for the credits to role. Even with solid performances from King and Efron, there’s very little to like about a movie of this caliber. There’s much better films out there to watch.