Home Again

It struck me while reading the negative comments to this movie that movie critics don't treat films the same way book critics treat books. For instance, a beach book is never critiqued the same way you would a Nobel-Prize winning's latest work. Why doesn't the same apply to movies? Why do most stuck-up, arrogant critics have to compare everything to the pantheon of Criterion Films and AFC classics? Isn't that counterintuitive? In a single night I watched both this film and the Florian Zeller film The Father (2020) starring Anthony Hopkins. These are two different kinds of films. I enjoyed them both for different reasons. And let me say this, after watching a tragic, lovely but difficult film about a person slipping away into senility, Home Again is a nice remedy, a counterweight to the more difficult film and at the same time, to the current crap in this world. Home Again is a love letter to the 'idea' and idealized version of Hollywood (the reality is far more sinister, I am sure) and a story about a newly-separated woman who happens to be the daughter of a deceased auteur filmmaker and nice-twist, allows three aspiring young filmmakers to occupy her L.A. guesthouse has a good vibe to it. Yes, these actors have appeared in other stellar roles in other blah blah blah award-winning fare but, as the old Shel Silverstein song goes, after you've been having steak for a long time, beans, beans taste fine. This movie is cinematic jelly beans, and there is a time and place for candy. Don't tell the critics that, they would rather we spend our time watching depressing, pessimistic drivel with politically correct messages. They don't live in the real world. And this movie, made my daughter of Nancy Meyers (The Holiday, It's Complicated, Something's Gotta Give, What Women Want) delivers a nice little tale. You go to the beach with a beach book, right? Most people don't read Dostoevsky while sipping margaritas (those kinds of people would be cool to meet, come to think of it...) And here, hey, you want a pizza night movie, this works. I'd rather watch something like this and smile at the end, as opposed to a rave review film that would have me reaching for Prozac. The characters in Home Again are easy going, fun, kind (most of them) and there are a few lessons learned along the way - Alice (Witherspoon) gets her priorities sorted, the filmmaker trio mature as friends. What's the problem here? My only criticism is that the story could have tied in the importance/presence of the filmmaker father more. We are introduced to him in the beginning and there are a few nods to him along the way, but it would have been more interesting to learn how his influence shaped his daughter's life, the decisions she made. That sort of thing. My only critique here, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying this movie.

This movie gave me more questions than answering............................

Even if someday we lose Nancy Meyers, we will have her daughter following all her guidelines. If that's good or bad, well, that's an entirely different thing.

Meyers-Shyer makes a failed attempt at the romantic comedies features of Meyers (The Holiday, The Intern). Her film lacks from an intriguing plot, the definition of good characters or an interesting thread to keep the viewer throughout its duration. Witherspoon is the only actress who seems to have fun in the movie and to be honest leads this fiasco to something purely mediocre.

Home Again's tagline... ironically titled "Starting over is not for beginners" out of everything that could have been possible... suggests that it must take a huge miracle to begin starting over. The problem here is that if it would ever be possible, I sure wish everyone that worked on this film that also worked on previous films; this means you too, Reese Witherspoon; gets a head start to starting over their career from their roots. We could easily pretend this film wouldn't exist otherwise in the canonical plot.