A Family Affair (2024) – Review

Quick Thoughts: Grade – B- – Powered by solid performances from Joey King, Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman, the romantic comedy provides several laughs and unique twists on the rom-com formula. It’s a bit overstuffed with subplots and supporting characters but enough charm and personality to make it an enjoyable comfort food watch. 

After spending the last six months putting together a data piece on romantic comedies, I realized that the best romantic comedies don’t avoid genre tropes – they embrace them. The nice thing about A Family Affair is that it utilizes rom-com tropes (lies, miscommunications, rich people, writing as a profession, rich people, it takes place in California, dancing, singing, happy endings) well and happily leans into the fact that it’s a PG-13 romantic comedy. It’s been knocked for not having enough passion and Joey King’s character being a third wheel, but if you look at it as a welcome heaping of comfort food you’ll find enjoyment. 

A Family Affair focuses on a personal assistant named Zara (Joey King – very likable) who spends her days and nights working for an A-list actor named Chris Cole (Zac Efron). Her job is miserable as she’s forced to buy earrings for the women he breaks up with and go on late night shopping trips to purchase whey protein (Cole is very needy). Zara lives at home with her single mom Brooke (Nicole Kidman), a Pulitzer Prize winning writer who is still reeling from the death of her husband 11 years prior. Things start going awry when after a work argument, Zara quits working for Chris and when he comes to her home to apologize he ends up striking up a relationship with Brooke. So, Zara’s womanizing boss starts a relationship with her widowed mom. It’s not a great situation and it leads to a bunch of PG-13 rom-com shenanigans involving day drinking, bruised heads, and a really cool pink AT-ST that I want in my home. 

Efron and Kidman got memorably intimate in the gnarly 2012 film The Paperboy (the jellyfish scene is very memorable), so their chemistry is believable. However, they aren’t allowed to spend too much time together because of the other storylines involving Zara’s relationship with her best friend Eugenie (Liza Koshy) and her coworker Stella (Sherry Cola – watch Joy Ride now). Toss in Kathy Bates, who plays the mom of Brooke’s deceased first husband, and A Family Affair finds itself loaded with too many characters. Overall, it doesn’t hurt the enjoyment of the film because there’s enough to like and it’s fun watching Joey King acting silly for 111 minutes.

After spending so much time with romantic comedies I’ve learned to expect the expected and just enjoy what they bring to the table. The best bits of A Family Affair are the comedic moments between King and Efron who bicker endlessly and have a relaxed chemistry that carries the film. The romance aspect is underwhelming, which typically isn’t good for a rom-com, but I don’t think this movie was ever meant to be Anyone But You or Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In the end, I was expecting a breezy rom-com and I got a breezy rom-com. That’s enough for me.