A newly separated mother takes on three young male lodgers: perhaps a better idea for a ’70s sitcom than a comedy film. Alice (Reese Witherspoon) is a perky, flustered interior designer who juggles dull work dramas with romantic conundrums. Chief of these is handsome Harry (Pico Alexander), who’s staying in Alice’s guesthouse with his buddies (Nat Wolff and Jon Rudnitsky). Aside from being aspiring filmmakers, each of these men is defined by one characteristic, so what starts as amusing becomes rather tired over the course of nearly two hours. ‘Home Again’ is too superficial to maintain tension as a character-driven drama, and not funny enough to overcome an aimless plot.
Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, the daughter of romcom legend Nancy Meyers (who also produced this), it’s loaded with knowing references to the movie industry. But it can’t decide if it’s ‘Entourage’, ‘Friends’ or even a polygamy drama, which is what early trailers seemed to suggest (if that was ever the intent, it chickens out). Witherspoon lights up the screen as always, but she’s underwritten. Given Meyers-Shyer’s background, it seems odd not to have given her heroine a job in the film industry: that might have resulted in something meatier than this glossy time-passer.