A wise piece of advice given to every working individual is to establish a clear delineation between their personal and professional life, and we’re often warned about the perils of bringing your work home since there can be ramifications on the work-life balance. However, there are some instances where they begin to encroach on each other’s space, which can lead to certain consequences. This is the starting point for A Family Affair, in which Richard LaGravenese directs a screenplay by Carrie Solomon, which tells the very simple story of a young woman working as the personal assistant for one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, who is a temperamental and volatile egomaniac who has completely lost sight of reality as a result of his stardom. However, a series of chance encounters means that he becomes even more of a factor in his unfortunate assistant’s life, particularly when he meets her single mother and is immediately smitten, which in turn causes the fragile balance of her life to be thrown into disarray, especially when it becomes clear that the feeling is mutual from both sides. A straightforward, run-of-the-mill romantic comedy that doesn’t do anything particularly daring, nor does it add any invaluable contributions to a genre that can either be ingenious or deeply conventional depending on the approach being taken, A Family Affair is a solid effort, albeit one that is barely remarkable outside of offering two hours of hackneyed tropes that remain popular due to their track record of success within the genre, which is ultimately what a lot of viewers anticipate from this mid-level style of comedy that is more enjoyable than complex. Returning to the director’s chair after a decade, LaGravenese proves his reputation as a reliable journeyman filmmaker when it comes to traditional romantic stories that don’t aim to do anything particularly unique, making it quite clear what we can expect from this material and its approach to certain ideas that are expected from such a story. Regardless, the film is still an entertaining diversion and offers exactly what we would expect, which is quite a rare achievement considering how many contemporary comedies attempt to be overly subversive and daring.

A Family Affair is a film consisting of two broad narrative concepts – the first is a showbusiness satire, focused on the experiences between a self-centred movie star and his long-suffering assistant who grows disgruntled by being exploited as nothing more than a glorified servant. The second is a story about a daughter and her mother, and how they overcome vast differences as the former grows up and slowly drifts away from a mother with whom she has a very difficult relationship. These two threads are the foundation of the film, and they eventually begin to weave together to create the central premise, which is all about the frustrations that occur when the professional aspects of one’s life begin to overlap with the domestic, and vice versa. For this reason, there are many different ideas with which the film can work, and there’s certainly not a shortage of potential themes that could be subjected to discussion as a part of the plot. Whether or not these ideas all make sense is a matter of opinion, but ultimately they follow the general structure of the generic but successful romantic comedies to the smallest detail, which is clearly what it was aiming to achieve. It does offer some astute observations in a few different parts – the showbusiness side is surprisingly deep (such as in the fact that this is one of the rare instances of a film offering something of a definition into what different producers do on a film), and while a lot of the humour is surface-level and quite simplistic, some terrific references show that the film was made by people who have some knowledge of the industry and its past, even if that effort is not used where it matters the most, namely in developing the story beyond conventions. It’s a lightweight offering that gives us exactly what we would expect, and not an ounce more – for some, this is ideal, as it represents a kind of reliable and simple escapism, while for others it might be slightly frustrating to see something with this much potential being rendered as mostly inconsequential and lacking in many nuances.

LaGravenese has been working in the industry for a while and has earned a reputation for solid, reliable films that give actors good roles, albeit not expecting too much from them for the most part. As a result, he was able to enlist quite an impressive cast for A Family Affair, which would have likely been hardly notable had it not featured some of these actors. The only reason it carries any sense of prestige is through the involvement of some people in this ensemble – whether or not the film uses them well is a different matter entirely. The protagonist of the film is played by Joey King, a fine young actor who has quite a firm grip on these conventional but likeable comedies that don’t offer much but are still very entertaining. It is inexplicable that King hasn’t managed to progress particularly far in her career – she’s done her fair share of serious material (her portrayal of Gypsy Rose Blanchard was very strong work) but has ultimately been typecast in these minor romantic comedies. She does her best, but her character is too much of a cypher to entirely earn our investment. Nicole Kidman plays her mother, with the entire film essentially hinging on the fact that this acclaimed actor is taking on such a seemingly straightforward role, abandoning her continuous efforts to challenge the medium and simply settling for having some fun. As strong of an actor as she may be, she doesn’t nothing particularly memorable in this film, which isn’t even to mention how severely miscast she was in this part, which required someone who could believably play this lonely woman terrified that she has settled into middle-age and will never get another chance at love. The premise of this film is the unlikely story of a movie star falling in love with an ordinary woman, but that immediately loses credibility when the latter role is portrayed by one of the most remarkably statuesque actors of her generation. The only performance in A Family Affair that works (outside of Kathy Bates’ scene-stealing work in a few scenes) is Zac Efron, who has proven himself to be a terrific comedic actor, this film allowing him to lean into the reputation that he’s cultivated over the years. No one is doing the best work of their careers, but they do at least put in the effort – the problem is that the film doesn’t seem willing to do the work to make these characters seem like multidimensional individuals, which seemed like a low priority for the filmmakers.

Perhaps it is expecting too much of a film like A Family Affair to think that it would be able to rise above the tropes and cliches, when in reality it is constructed to be almost entirely composed of these elements, which makes it predictable and somewhat dull, but also adheres to the general direction in which these stories tend to go, making use of a tried-and-tested pattern that is usually the backbone of the most commonplace entries into this genre.As far as the premise and its execution go, this film is doing the bare minimum, but it exists in one of the few genres where following the conventions closely is the source of some praise, since it indicates consistency, which is valuable in the right instances. The problem with this film isn’t that it fails to be compelling (it most certainly is very entertaining), but rather that it had an abundance of potential, and it never quite manages to rise above these sometimes limited constraints, based on its decision to veer towards the predictable and consistent, rather than elevating it and risking alienating the portion of the audience that doesn’t expect to be challenged, but rather to see a swoon-worthy love story. Not only does it take its cast for granted, it never really does anything interesting with the story, which leads to our attention beginning to drift, after which point it is exceptionally difficult to regain. It ultimately falls victim to the cliches of the genre, and it never manages to scrounge up enough original ideas to be anywhere close to as exciting as it could have been. Those who are normally agnostic to this kind of overtly conventional, cliche-riddled romantic comedy will not be converted by this film, which offers exactly what it says at the outset, and not an iota more, which can be difficult to become enthusiastic about, especially when there was such clear potential to maybe add a few bespoke elements that would instantaneously elevate it beyond these dull quirks that we can predict from the very first moments.

A Family Affair is a film that is perfectly represented by its title – it does exactly what you would expect, but it is shrouded in a blanket of blandness from which it never truly manages to escape, failing to stand out as anything more than just a conventional romantic comedy that does virtually nothing we haven’t seen done before, to the point where whatever paltry potential it had begins to disappear and is replaced by some of the most obvious ideas that are neither original nor all that compelling. It’s understandable why the film was made – the idea of falling in love with a world-renowned movie star is something that many of us have fantasized about and stories about ordinary individuals who defy the odds and find themselves in unexpected positions where their dreams become a reality. Those expecting something subversive or daring should possibly look elsewhere than this film, which is entertaining but not original in the slightest, which is to be expected but something that should ultimately still be noted for those who may believe that this is an example of a film that presents itself as conventional but has unique elements that make it covertly more compelling. This is not the case in the slightest, and we soon come to realize that A Family Affair can only be sold on the storyline and its cast, neither of which necessarily gels together all that well, but which eventually do form the foundation of a reliable charming film, the kind that offers very little in terms of originality, but still does well in being a relatively entertaining work, albeit one that we can predict every plot point from the start, so those expecting something more complex should perhaps look elsewhere, since its not going to be found in this film.