Spoiler alert! This story contains minor spoilers about A Family Affair. You can watch the movie with a Netflix subscription.
I’m a big fan of rom-coms, and while I tend to keep a handful of the best romantic comedies in the regular rotation, I also watch a lot of stinkers. We’re all familiar with laundry movies, right? It’s perfectly fine to throw on a flick to occupy your time while you’re cleaning or scrolling social media. So, after reading critics’ reactions to A Family Affair — where they called Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron’s movie with Joey King “lifeless,” “insufferable” and “excruciating” — that's what I thought I'd get, and my expectations were practically non-existent. However, after watching the age-gap comedy, I’m not sure it deserved as much negativity as it got.
Here are a few things I really liked about A Family Affair.
Joey King Has Great Comedic Timing
I knew who Joey King was going into A Family Affair, but I don’t think I’d actually seen her in anything before this, and I really like her performance.
The comedic timing of her snarky comebacks elevates the character of Zara, in my opinion, to more than just a put-upon employee and disgruntled daughter. Her physical comedy is also impressive, as King really commits to one stunt in particular, resulting in A+ reactions from her co-stars.
Zara is a flawed character, but that shouldn’t be confused with a bad story or a bad performance.
Chris Cole Seems Like Kind Of A Fun Boss
When I read that Zac Efron plays a self-absorbed Hollywood celebrity who mistreats his assistant Zara, I was picturing Chris Cole as some kind of Miranda Priestly character, some dictator barking out impossible orders at all hours of the day and night.
What I got, though, was a manchild whose worst crime at the beginning of the movie is trying to get Zara to join him in singing Cher’s “Believe” in the car. And at the end of the movie is the revelation that he made her buy surprise birthday gifts for his dogs.
I’ve had worse bosses while making less money, and I know her complaints are more nuanced than the ones listed above, but it's also kind of relatable that Chris just wants to marvel at all the fun cereal in the grocery store. So, I'm not mad at him.
Critics don’t like how Chris evolves so suddenly from a terrible boss to a standup guy, but I don’t think he's ever that bad to begin with.
Kathy Bates And Liza Koshy Kill It With Their Zara Confrontations
As I already established, Zara makes some mistakes in A Family Affair. She refuses to consider her mom Brooke’s (Nicole Kidman) happiness, yes. However, even more egregious, she is oblivious to the obvious pain her best friend Eugenie (Liza Koshy) is in over her fledgling relationship. Both of those situations come to a head with confrontations that I think are incredibly satisfying.
It’s no surprise that Kathy Bates comes through as Best Grandma Ever in her speech to Zara about Brooke’s new relationship. In the most loving, respectful way ever, she points out that Brooke is more than a mom, she is a woman who deserves happiness. She then tells Zara to grow up, and says if she can't be happy, she better fake it. This kind of "get over yourself" attitude is refreshing.
Eugenie has to take an even harsher approach in pointing out how Zara has been pretty much the crappiest friend, and Joey King’s character deserves every bit of it.
One could argue about the strength of Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron’s chemistry or the statements the movie makes about Hollywood’s more ridiculous proclivities. But suffice it to say, I enjoyed this a lot more than some of the 2024 movie schedule's other offerings (ahem, Mother of the Bride) and just as much as others (The Idea of You).
So if you’ve been eyeing A Family Affair on Netflix’s 2024 TV and movie schedule, don’t let the bad reviews keep you away. You might be surprised too.
