By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Hallie Meyers-Shyer
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Nat Wolff, Pico Alexander, Jon Rudnitsky, P.J. Byrne, Lake Bell, Lola Flanery, Eden Grace Redfield, Reid Scott, Michael Sheen and Candice Bergen.
Rating: Poor.
Hallie Meyers-Shyer, daughter of filmmaker Nancy Meyers makes her directorial debut with “Home Again” and it was an unfortunate one.
The movie tells the story of Alice Kinney (Reese Witherspoon) a single mother who moves to Los Angeles with her two daughters Isabel (Lola Flanery) and Rosie (Eden Grace Redfield).
Everything will change for Alice when she meets a group of filmmakers conformed by director Harry (Pico Alexander), writer George (Jon Rudnitsky) and actor Teddy (Nat Wolff) in a bar.
After a night of partying, the guys stay with Alice. After her mother Lilian (Candice Bergen) drops her grandchildren with Alice, she convinces her daughter to let them stay in order to make their dreams come true.
At the end Alice agrees on letting the boys stay and together will form a unique friendship.
The major problem that I saw in “Home Again” was in terms of screenplay that it was too predictable and was filled with too many clichés.
Like I mentioned in multiple occasions this genre has the advantage of being a generous one. But like everything there is a limit and I think that this one surpassed it.
The writing of the film was too on the nose, and I felt that it was too amateur. I felt that Hallie Meyers-Shyer was copying her mother´s style in terms of filmmaking which was a huge problem.
I felt that Meyers-Shyer could have worked more in her story and it could have a good movie since it had elements for it. The problem as always was the execution that led to a complete disaster.
Meyers- Shyer´s major failure besides of creating a weak screenplay, was her directing that led to performances that we´re everything but convincing. She had a A list actress in Reese Witherspoon but no matter who do you have on board in your film, if you´re story has a problem, most likely your film will have a major one.
I hope this is a huge learning lesson for Hallie Meyers-Shyer and in her next projects she can print her own style.
With that being said “Home Again” is one of the weakest romantic comedies I´ve seen in a while and I cannot give a recommendation to it.