All through A Household Affair, daughter Zara (Joey King) and mother Brooke (Nicole Kidman) argue over simply what sort of a person Chris Cole (Zac Efron) is. To Zara, he’s a self-absorbed film star boss who oscillates between unreasonable calls for and threats of firing. For Brooke, he’s an attentive lover, the primary man to reawaken her to the potential for romance for the reason that dying of Zara’s father, Charlie.

Neither of them are precisely improper — Chris, like anybody, comprises multitudes. The place the Richard LaGravenese-directed A Household Affair struggles, nevertheless, is in convincing us he is perhaps each without delay. Half showbiz send-up and half earnest romantic drama, the movie lurches awkwardly between its two modes with out deciding on a single cohesive tone. Luckily, each halves are additionally blessed with the identical high quality that permits Chris to embody each Zara’s thought of him and Brooke’s: sufficient attraction to make you come away smiling, at the same time as you shake your head at its missteps.

The primary Chris we meet is the obnoxious one. Onscreen, he’s the Marvel-style hero of a terrible-sounding franchise known as Icarus Rush; offscreen, he’s a useless man-child pitching hissy suits at Zara. He calls her at odd hours to ship her in search of protein powder, and makes her assemble reward baskets for his canine together with her personal cash. He runs by means of girlfriends like tissues, then sends her to choose up his stuff from their homes. He strings her together with the promise of an assistant producer credit score, however regularly insists she’s not “prepared” to do far more than choose up his dry cleansing. None of those gags are particularly contemporary — Chris is just each spoiled Hollywood stereotype rolled into one. However screenwriter Carrie Solomon comes at them with the wry fondness of an insider who is aware of simply how ridiculous her business might be.

They’re additional elevated by Efron, who was final seen within the weepie The Iron Claw however reminds us right here that he’s an excellent higher comedian expertise than a dramatic one. His crackerjack timing turns first rate jokes into laugh-out-loud hilarious ones, and his puppyish sweetness retains Chris endearing at his worst. His (platonic) dynamic with King positively crackles with each exasperation and begrudging affection. At one level, Chris scoffs that it’s “derogatory” for her to name him a celeb as a result of he’s a film star, damnit. The second performs as a joke, nevertheless it additionally comprises a kernel of reality. Like The Fall Man, A Household Affair serves as a testomony to the ability of movie-star charisma whereas concurrently poking enjoyable at it.

All this Hollywood satire is merely set-up for the true plot of A Household Affair, which kicks in as soon as Chris invitations himself over to the house Zara shares together with her mom. Whereas ready for her to point out, he and Brooke get to speaking over tequila photographs. The subsequent factor both of them know, Brooke is ripping open the very t-shirt that Chris, solely the day earlier than, had screamed at Zara for not treating extra gently.

At first, the hook-up is performed for laughs. Chris stays his ditzy self, wooing Brooke from traces together with his personal films. (“This time I imply it,” he insists when she teasingly calls him out on it.) Zara is so startled to search out her mom in mattress together with her employer that she goes full slapstick, choking on a grape and knocking herself unconscious. Fumbling to elucidate, Brooke unintentionally invokes the identical excuse Zara gave her for getting a forbidden eyebrow piercing as a teen: “It made sense on the time when the man was placing it in.”

However A Household Affair takes on a extra honest and nostalgic tone because the hook-up evolves into one thing deeper. Kidman and Efron share a decently candy chemistry that’s nothing just like the tawdry dynamic they flaunted in The Paperboy. Chris will get susceptible about his childhood tragedies and the loneliness of fame. She confesses it’s been years since she felt desired, and permits herself the posh of “going a bit of loopy” for the primary time since she will be able to bear in mind. Though there are moments when the movie goes large with costly dinners and personal studio excursions and an adorably quirky third-act gesture, the connection is mostly pitched as a slow-burn love affair, not an impassioned fling.

In actual fact, A Household Affair barely leans into the fairy story of relationship a wealthy and attractive A-lister. In distinction to The Thought of You, with which it shares a superficially related premise, the movie is essentially unconcerned with the particular perks or challenges of relationship whereas well-known. Brooke is unfamiliar with Chris’ profession, and he or she doesn’t want him to whisk her away on holidays or carry her to fancy galas; she’s completed effectively sufficient already to have her personal cliffside mansion and closet stuffed with designer attire. Although Chris can’t a lot as go for a grocery run with out getting swarmed, the couple don’t focus on what it’d imply to go public with their relationship — they usually by no means must, because it in some way by no means occurs. The largest menace to their connection is Zara’s disapproval, not the hole in age and social standing.

The fantasies that the film does faucet into are extra mundane, and nearly extra poignant for it. One is of being a feminine author whose expertise attracts, slightly than intimidates, an eligible suitor. Brooke recounts how fellow author Charlie appeared to resent her success; Chris, however, goes out of his option to discover her writing, and even memorizes her greatest bits by coronary heart. The opposite is of being a mom whose youngster lastly appreciates her sacrifices. All three lead characters could possibly be accused of creating short-sighted or self-serving selections. However it’s Brooke the film portrays as a saint who’s earned no matter happiness she will be able to get, and Zara who’s made to apologize for being egocentric.

Parallels are drawn between Brooke lovingly tending to Zara’s each want by means of a troublesome childhood and Zara catering to Chris’ now. I’d level out that these conditions aren’t remotely the identical, and in reality haven’t any enterprise being in the identical dialog — simply as A Household Affair‘s Hollywood materials and its drama really feel at occasions like they’ve come from two utterly completely different movies. However the traces are delivered with such heartfelt tenderness that for a second, you is perhaps moved despite your self.