A Family Affair Parent Guide

Zara (Joey King) dreams of making it big as a Hollywood producer, but for now she’s slogging away as an assistant to demanding Hollywood heartthrob Chris Cole (Zac Efron). Feeling stuck catering to his diva demands, Zara decides to quit.

In an attempt to change her mind, Chris goes to her house, where he meets her mom, Brooke (Nicole Kidman). The two soon strike up a romance, much to Zara’s chagrin. Zara is convinced that Chris won’t change his philandering ways and tries to get in between her boss and her mom, which causes tension both at home and at work.

I am not a script writer, so I don’t want to seem like I’m telling experts how to do their jobs. But I’m pretty sure that if you’re writing a comedy you have to add jokes. Or if you forget to, as these writers have, maybe you shouldn’t market your product as a comedy. Joey King’s endless whining is not a joke, it’s just annoying. I don’t want to sound like I’m placing blame for this garbage on King, or any of the other actors. The performances are all perfectly fine, if lacking some chemistry. The cast simply weren’t given any decent material to work with.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the first thirty minutes. Chris is believably out of touch and provides some decent satirical commentary on celebrity culture. Zara has relatable feelings around starting her life and figuring out her career, and Brooke is a supportive mom. Then Chris and Brooke meet and the whole thing falls apart. Chris’s character changes completely and immediately with no real motivation, Zara becomes incredibly irritating and whiny, and Brooke is just kind of there until she has some emotional moments in the third act. I didn’t like any of the characters (Kathy Bates being a strong exception as per usual in her role as Zara’s paternal grandmother), so I didn’t care about what happened to them. I just got bored and annoyed, which is not usually the intended emotions for a film audience.

On top of being a bad movie, it’s also rife with swearing (over 40 profanities) and non-explicit sexual content. The PG-13 rating is appropriate, as there’s no nudity and only one F bomb, but I don’t think that will make much difference for most family audiences. Sadly, the objectionable content is really only a footnote here, as I wouldn’t recommend A Family Affair even if it were squeaky clean. When you start with a bad story, no amount of glossy production values and famous actors is going to make it better.