Michelle Jean

⚠️ Warning: Not a Romantic Movie ⚠️ Interestingly, Netflix’s version of the currently in-trend sexy-single-mom+celebrity-younger-man love affair trope is nothing like Prime Video’s “The Idea of You.” Where the Anne Hathaway-Nicholas Galitzine film was a romantic movie through and through, this Zac Efron-Nicole Kidman movie is thoroughly and eponymously a family affair indeed. Most of the emotional intimacy in the film stems from the relationships between the three generations of women, each with their own backstories and lives to live. Much of the story is seen from the perspective of the daughter played by Joey King, which makes this fall under more coming-of-age than romantic drama. Zara Ford is a 24-year-old who is lost, way too angsty, and honestly much in need to be taken down a peg. As you can probably guess, she doesn’t take too kindly to her mother’s love affair and does not handle it kindly. At. All. Meanwhile, the “romance” of the film — the one solid thing that this whole story is supposed to be predicated upon… had neither chemistry to start nor believability to go on. Don’t get me wrong, Zac Efron is believable as a self-centred airhead movie star, and Nicole Kidman is believable as a sad widow who hasn’t been touched in a decade. But why would you get sparks when you put them both together? And how does meeting a more mature woman suddenly turn a childish, vain man into a witty charmer with an impeccable bedside manner and who is suddenly capable of not only buying things on his own but giving tremendously thoughtful gifts??? I’m sorry, but amidst the montage of them cosying up on the beach and playing backgammon, I somehow missed that moment when he underwent a personality makeover. Personally, Kathy Bates as the grandmother figure is the most delightful bit of the film for me. And her faceticious one-liners have won over not only the scenes in the film but apparently the rest of the internet! Well, watch it for Kathy Bates. That’s my review of the film. A romantic movie this definitely is not. 🍿 🍿