Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Writer/Director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, daughter of Nancy Myers (“It’s Complicated”) tries, unsuccessfully to clone themes from past Myers films; which might have worked if the characters had not been shallow, paper mache replicas, ubiquitous in a myriad of B-movies: separated, forty-year-old mother, “Alice” (Reese Witherspoon’s effervescence fizzled at the halfway point) with two synthetically, precocious daughters “Isabel” and “Rosie” (Lola Flannery, Eden Grace Redfield) living in the mansion of her deceased, filmmaker father, in La La Land. Enter three starving “artists” that Alice allows temporary residence in her guest house (elitism abounds in this spectacular white world); “Harry” (inordinately gorgeous Pico Alexander; his physiognomy transcended his talent) is the twenty-seven year-old love interest; the three are surrogate fathers, until “Austen” (Michael Sheen’s skills are diminished in this poorly defined role) the girls actual father, invades their artificial “make believe” environment.
No surprises, as predictability prevails, proving the Thomas Wolfe adage, you really shouldn’t or couldn’t go “home again”.
ONE & 1/2 STARS!
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