Reese Witherspoon’s latest star vehicle “Home Again” is pretty much a standard wish-fulfillment chick flick. But oh, what wishes. And oh, what fulfillment.
The ever-perky actress plays Alice, who just separated from her husband and relocated from New York to Los Angeles with her two young daughters. Alice wants love, companionship and success as an interior decorator, although she doesn’t appear to be in any need of money. The kids, Isabel (Lola Flanery) and Rosie (Eden Grace Redfield), also want love and companionship, as well as to fit in at their new school.
“Home Again” is the feature debut of writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, the daughter of filmmaker Nancy Meyers (“It’s Complicated,” “The Intern”). Mom, who has a producer role here, is clearly a major influence. The protagonists in Meyers’ movies may be a couple of decades older than the 40-year-old Alice, but the immaculate homes and gardens that star in the two women’s movies are essentially interchangeable.
Meyers-Shyer’s modest innovation is to tweak romantic-comedy conventions so they encompass the kids. Alice is courted by many men, but most of them are just as eager to charm Isabel and Rosie. Although the movie’s climactic gesture is a rom-com staple, here it’s meant not for Alice, but for one of her girls. Isabel and Rosie’s happiness is the frosting on this cupcake-sweet fable, even if the movie does spend much more time with their mom.
