YNMS: "Home Again"
Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 10:30AM 
Chris here. Big Little Lies may have been the kicked off a seemingly endless lineup of projects to obsess over for both Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern (welcome, new fans of both - it's nice here), but what about those of us craving more Reese-surgence?
Fear not because Reese Witherspoon will be return to the big screen very shortly and she's back in the warm fuzzy mode this time for Home Again. Those warm fuzzies will come from the cashmere sweater universe of producer Nancy Meyers and her first-time writer/director daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer. Witherspoon stars as a single mother who invites three young men to live with her before they all promptly fall in love with her. How could they not, right? Call it Big Little Guys.
Can you believe it's been since This Means War (eek, remember that one?) since we've had her in a romantic comedy? Take a look at the super fun trailer and we'll break down the Yes No Maybe So after the jump...
YES
- Get it, Reese! You go!
- Ok, from that plot line you'd expect more cliched representation of cougarism, right? Those seem to be taking a backseat to more nervous character humor.
- DEBUT FEMALE FILMMAKER ALERT! Not that The Film Experience readers need reminding to support women directors, but debut female comedies are rare enough these days that we should take note when they happen.
- Reese's Alice sounds like Big Little Lies's Madeline minus her confrontational flair. If any of that brilliant performance carries over through osmosis, this should be a delight.
- No matter how fluffy the material, doesn't Reese's gaze just pierce your soul?
NO
- Are all the boys adoring her (ex Michael Sheen included) buffoons?
- Please give Candice Bergen something more to do than be a wise mother in a sensible scarf.
- That relatively light plot line seems thin and the trailer doesn't give much more. Is there anything else going on here? I'm sensing this could be a little... basic.
- It may be light on the mom cliches, but that dating profile bit makes up for it.
MAYBE SO
- This looks to be a large ensemble of a few unfamiliar faces. Maybe a charming group of actors outside of Reese?
- All these reaction shots of Witherspoon are so gif-ready.
While Reese is always a YES in my book, Home Again is a MAYBE SO for me. What do you think of the trailer?
Reader Comments (27)
Who is that GUY?
Hot hot hot
Looks fun, and loving the final shot
Why do people feel the need to double barrel their names is my take away from this post.
Reese has proven that she can elevate standard rom-com material. Here's hoping she has some smart dialogue to work with.
I will champion female directors except when it's based on nepotism only,her mother and father are famous/successful,well known in the industry,connections etc where has this girls struggle been to get a film made.
Even well established female directors struggle,this daughter is handed this Reese vehicle on a plate.
A giant NO all around, this looks absolutely dreadful.
@markgordonuk - I mostly agree with you, but the same could have been said of Sophia Coppola, and she has given us so much cinematic brilliance, so let's hope the lady proves herself talented beyond the luck of coming out of the right uterus.
I say the same for Coppolla to she got where she is 'cos of her Dad,LIT is her only great Classic movie,it's the getting a film made that's the struggle and so may known and unknown don't get finance or help,this everything wrong with entertainment now.
Daughters of sons of Uncles of Fathers of Dead Celebs,it's everywhere.
oh gawd, no, at least not in the theater.. And I'm in the demographic for these Nancy Meyers/daughter movies. Lots of house porn (gigantic kitchens, perfectly painted woodwork, vibrant fabrics, lots of light), obligatory "let's get wasted", "dancing to decades-old music" then "drunk sex" scenes. No, and no, Even if this is written/directed by the daughter, it has all the tropes of the mother's recent movies, which I didn't love, so no.
Also a Maybe So here. Terrible title, for a short trailer there's not a lot of story here, the guys seem fairly generic and the whole film looks very...beige. But Reese's line readings are great, as usual ("and I've been up since 5:30") so...maybe.
A Maybe So. I like how Reese Witherspoon has turned things around for her career with Wild, producing Gone Girl, and Big Little Lies. I'm hoping this can continue the Rees-urgence but we shall see.
And ethnic minority leads are now 0-for-12 in Nancy Meyers-produced films.
I keep seeing the same names over and over again. We used to have more variety of ladies in the 80s.
I can generally always appreciate Reese Witherspoon being funny and hot guys being shirtless. I also thought the face and personality line was funny. But the trailer, and the comments to this article, have me in "hmmm" territory.
Why does this look like a polygamist rom-com? Definite yes, if so.
Cougar soft core porn? I agree that this is whiter than Casper the friendly ghost.
Reese, attractive men, and a relatively funny trailer-I'm in for this.
How Do You Know (you're) Home Again? When Hollywood trailers are so generic, it's like déjà vu. Love Reese, but no thanks.
It's a MAYBE.
What is the plot again? Why are they there? The only thing I really noticed was the song by the Cars.
Definitely Rainy Day Saturday material.
Looks rubbish. No.
NOPE. This looks more in the vein of How Do You Know (which I turned off half-way through a flight) than her smart comedy vehicles like Legally Blonde.
Whatever happened to her Peggy Lee biopic with Todd Haynes directing? I'll definitely see that!
Normally with Reese I'd be an automatic yes, and I'm all for supporting Hollywood giving female directors a chance, but UGGGHHHH!!!
Because the senior representative in the Meyers family was just so overflowing with talent and personality we now need her progeny to carry on her heady vintage?
This is one of the most soul-crushing cases of Hollywood nepotism I've come across.
And putting that aside: I started watching the trailer before I even read who the director was... And actually could not bring myself to watch til the end. It's like a parody trailer for a Nancy Meyers atrocity.
There's no yes. There's no maybe. Just no no no no no NOO!! Reese, why are you doing this to us and to yourself?
That cutie actor Pico Alexander's body is unapologetically eroticized in this trailer...:)
And as a 40-year-old, the "but I'm 40" line makes me cringe...oh, just get on with it and get yours...40 is still young bitches!
Cute and that boy wow! The camera loves him!
just imagine any B actress in that role then you'll realize what an automatic NO that is
It's a little weird that a person who was previously known for sharing a name with a PARENT TRAP character has grown up and joined the family biz. She can make the movies now, and her mother can design obscenely lavish kitchens full-time.
Other thoughts:
1. Jason Reitman has two Oscar nominations for Best Director. Nepotism can work.
2. Not sure why Nancy Meyers films should be singled out for a lack of diversity, especially when you consider them as part of some light cashmere knit Williams-Sonoma shared universe. Woody Allen never has to deal with this.
@ Brevity - There was a big brouhaha about Woody Allen's not casting actors of color back in 2014. Do a google search for "woody allen never casts actors of color" and a bunch of articles will pop with a) the criticism, b) Allen's rrsponse, and c) the reaction to his response. Even Breitbart has article celebrating Woody for "not kowtowing to thr PC brigade" (or something along those lines). It was a big deal back then because he essentially said he would not cast a black actor or an actor of color unless the role called for it, especifically (i.e. bluntly stating that for him white is the norm, color is the variation, even if he didn't frame it that way.
Good call on Jason Reitman too. Also Liza Minelli, Sean Astin, Vanessa Redgrave... I mean, if the talent is there, I don't mind the nepotism, but I usually feel that it has to be on extraordinary levels to get a complete pass.
i'll bet nancy demanded her daughter include a sweater-draped-older-actress-in-a-gorgeous-kitchen scene before getting her checkbook out
god, no.
That's one depressing trailer. Witherspoon is sooo good in Big Little Lies, that it reminded you what an exciting and edgy young actress she was in Election and even lesser known 90"s films like Best Laid Plans. She sold her soul to become a rom-com Queen, and this trailer recalls that and how much potential was wasted in that phase. She"s a better actress than this shit.
Hopefully Laura Dern and Nicole Kidman can stage an intervention for Reese to get her away from this trite garbage.