A Family Affair review: Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron’s film falls flat

By Kate Dennett For Daily Mail Australia

06:04 02 Jul 2024, updated 06:50 02 Jul 2024

Rating:

Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron last portrayed lovers 12 years ago in the buzzy crime drama The Paperboy, but sadly they’ve failed to make the same impact in their big romantic return to screens.

Kidman and Efron do their best to heat things up in Netflix‘s hotly anticipated May-December rom-com A Family Affair – but the result is a rather tepid affair.

Efron takes on the role of vain movie star Chris Cole, while Kidman portrays writer Brook Harwood, who is the mother of his long-suffering assistant Zara (Joey King).

Chris and Brook fumble together in a tipsy hook-up, much to Zara’s horror – but after a sizzling start, their on-screen chemistry quickly goes cold.

After the steamy age-gap triumph that was Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine’s The Idea of You, A Family Affair fails to live up to the same standards – and not even Nicole’s star quality can save this streaming exclusive.

The film, directed by Richard LaGravenese, starts by focusing on the strained dynamic between conceited Chris and his long-suffering assistant Zara, who grows increasingly tired of his ridiculous requests.

He asks her to source the ‘break-up’ earrings he always gives to women he is about to dump, and threatens to fire her for every small mistake

Eventually, an exasperated Zara throws in the towel.

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While trying to hire Zara back, Chris meets her widowed mother Brook, a celebrated writer, and they soon find themselves in a clinch.

They start dating and – suddenly – Chris vanity and shallowness evaporate as the love of an older woman magically scrubs away all of his negative character traits.

While it has all the hallmarks of a Hollywood rom-com, the delivery leaves much to be desired as the lovers’ dynamic quickly becomes cliched and insufferable.

While the trailer promises steamy sex scenes and romance aplenty, the finished product is not the mature romance Netflix viewers have become accustomed to.

Spoiler alert: it’s really just a tipsy hook-up and a few kisses. Anyone who has sat through multiple seasons of Bridgerton will be left woefully unsatisfied.

With only a few convincing romantic moments, their chemistry falls flat by the end of the first act, and Chris’ blink-and-you’ll-miss-it transformation from airhead to gentleman feels like it was clumsily crowbarred into the script.

The film also suffers due to the focus placed on Zara as the disgruntled assistant and outraged daughter, when presumably most viewers are tuning in for a love story.

A canny script would have kept things simple by making it all about a widow search for true love leading her into the arms of a younger man.

But what A Family Affair delivers is only a half-romance; the other half is all about the insufferable success-obsessed dynamic between Chris and Zara.

When a family-like bond blossoms over Christmas, there’s a flash of hope that A Family Affair can embrace the cosy rom-com feel – but then a blazing row erupts and we’re once again left disappointed.

Viewers who have already seen The Idea of You won’t be able resist comparing the two, and A Family Affair pales in comparison to its rival.

While single mother Solene and boy band heart-throb Hayes Campbell captured hearts with their sexy and endearing storyline, Chris and Brook lack the same charm.

Kidman could have easily shone in this role – but was hamstrung by a string of comedic clichés and hackneyed romantic tropes.

Despite the hype, this one deserves to go straight from Netflix’s top 10 to the bottom of the digital bargain bin.

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