Delayed Reaction: Home Again

Premise: A single mother invites three young men (aspiring filmmakers) to live in her guest house...and that's about it.

I'm catching up on the Blank Check podcast. I just got through the series on Nancy Meyers, which ended with Home Again, the debut film of her daughter, Hallie Meyer-Shyer: a film with more than a little of her mother's DNA in it. I was surprised to hear how positive the podcast hosts (Griffin and David) were about the movie. But that was fitting with the tone of that entire mini-series. Since I'd seen most of Meyers' movies before or couldn't find them streaming anywhere, I decided to give this one a try.

I remember when this movie came out. It was pretty anonymous. That was right before Reese Witherspoon set her sights on prestige TV and producing her shows. Except for her Oscar nominated turn in Wild, she was sort of lost for a decade. She had a couple other small movies that got some critical attention like Mud and Water for Elephants, but she'd been making mostly forgettable movies like Hot Pursuit, This Means War, and How Do You Know. I couldn't figure out if this was a case of Hollywood throwing an actress away after she turned 35 or if it was a more specific Reese Witherspoon problem: her persona and the kind of movies she built her reputation on weren't working anymore. Kind of like how Adam Sandler's schtick had trouble working in his 40s. Home Again didn't look bad, exactly. It looked...listless. Not sure what it wanted to be. RomCom. Farce. Family drama. I could see it going in a lot of directions, and even the best version would be only a pleasant distraction.

Well, it turned out to be the best version of the movie. Home Again is a pleasant distraction. It's 97 minutes of people being good to each other. That's it. The drama never even reaches a boil. There's a budding relationship between Reese and one of the guys. There's her ex-husband (Michael Sheen) getting competitive when he learns that three 20-something men are living in close proximity to his ex-wife and kids. The three men are trying to get their dream movie made. Reese is coming to terms with the death of her father a while before. None of it gets very intense though. I mean, the climax of the movie hinges on if the guys will make it to Reese's daughter's school play.

I don't want to pretend that this was some masterpiece but it's pretty great empty calories programming. Reese Witherspoon is charming as always and balances her roles as mother, girlfriend, daughter, and aspiring interior designer nimbly. The three young men (Nat Wolff, Jon Rudnitsky, and Pico Alexander) are...well...'adorable' is the main word that comes to mind. Most of my attempt at notes for this movie was just me saying "oh boys" after they did something kind or harmless. Candice Bergen has a perfect "With Candice Bergen" supporting role as Reese's mom. She doesn't do much, but whenever she's on screen, I was happy.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend