MOVIES It's summer, which means it is off cially Holing Up Indoors Avoiding the Heat season for many of us. And that means we're in need of some mindless yet entertaining romantic comedies. OK, fine, twist my arm; here are five recently released movies available on streaming, rated from one heart to five and filled with cute outfits, enviable interior decoration and questionable life lessons.
Enjoy! 'Mother of the Bride' Netflix; 90 minutes The premise: World-renowned geneticist Lana Winslow (Brooke Shields) is distressed upon finding out a) that her rather tiresome daughter Emma (Miranda Cosgrove) is engaged and planning an immediate influencer wedding in Thailand, and b) Emma's fiance R.J. (Sean Teale) is actually the son of Lana's long-ago flame Will (Benjamin Bratt).
And ...
seriously, I'm writing this an hour after watching this movie and I can't remember what else happens, except that I kept hoping that Shields, who seems to have some sort of rider in her contract requiring that all her Netflix movies involve world travel, might just hop on back to her castle in Scotland to sulk. (See " A Castle for Christmas," which is much more fun than this movie. Or see "Ticket to Paradise," the Julia Roberts/ George Clooney comedy from a couple of years back, which is basically "Mother of the Bride" but better.
) The setting: A lavish resort in Phuket, Thailand, where the women wear flowing dresses and the men wear linen shorts and nobody ever gets sunburned. In other words, typical romcom fantasy. The chemistry: Ouch.
There is absolutely no reason to root for Lana and Will, who seem to have nothing in common except their picture-perfect/very dull children and a tendency to look a bit embarrassed when delivering lines like "I am so impressed by your engagement numbers." The life lessons learned: To avoid unpleasant surprises, ask your kid who they're marrying before you show up at the venue. Rating: 'Am I OK?' Max; 86 minutes The premise: Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is 32 and in a transitional, confusing period in her life: Her best friend Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) is moving overseas, her dreams of being an artist seem to have fizzled, and she's finding herself attracted to women — specifically, her flirty co-worker Brittany (Kiersey Clemons).
It's a rom-com — there's plenty of dating — with emphasis on the rom, and on Lucy's personal journey. The setting: Los Angeles, filled with yoga classes, posh wellness spas, "hammock sanctuaries," and people saying things like, "I was going to meditate with the view, but then I started making a mood board on Pinterest." The chemistry: Alas, Johnson plays Lucy with one note: the same sort of vaguely detached, low-energy murmuring that she brought to "Madame Web" and the "Fifty Shades" series, both of which I am still recovering from.
You wonder why the much more dynamic Jane puts up with Lucy, whose cute slouchy hats have more personality than she does, and who has a weird way of saying lines like, "Do you have a lot of ...
pants?" like she's playing a very slow round of Mad Libs. Things perk up a bit by the charming final scene, but I mostly watched this movie thinking how much better it would have been with someone more vivid (say, Mizuno, delightful as Jane) in the central role. The life lessons learned: Be open to life change at the ripe old age of 32; be nice to your best friend, even if she's moving away; approach hammock sanctuaries with caution.
Rating: 'Upgraded' Prime Video; 104 minutes The premise: Ana (Camila Mendes) is an intern at a posh art-auction company who, after getting upgraded on a work trip to London and downing a few glasses of free Champagne on the plane, allows her handsome seatmate William (Archie Renaux) to think that she's the boss of her company. But guess what — turns out his mother (Lena Olin) is a super-rich art collector in need of some auctioning! Some very rom-com, "Devil Wears Prada"ish scrambling ensues. The setting: Mostly London, which allows for some beautiful historic buildings, views of London Bridge and William Morris wallpaper.
The chemistry: It's decent! Mendes and Renaux are rather charming together, particularly when she calls him "Downton Abbey" and he responds with "I'm more of a 'Bridgerton' man." One could quibble that these two characters are perhaps not the swiftest — would he really think that Ana, who appears to be in her early 20s, would be the head of a vast New York off ce, and doesn't he wonder why she carries her own suitcases and makes her own reservations? And wouldn't Ana figure out, before swiping her boss' gown and going to a society party, that her boss and some photographers would also be there? But the movie's cute enough to let that slide. The life lessons learned: Do not lie to handsome men seated next to you on trans-Atlantic flights.
On the other hand, maybe do — it works out fine for Ana in the end. Rating: 'A Family Affair ' Netflix; 114 minutes The premise: Zara (Joey King) is trying to get a toehold in the movie industry by working as an assistant to egotistical movie star Chris Cole (Zac Efron), but gets more drama than she bargained for when her widowed mother Brooke (Nicole Kidman) begins a relationship with Chris. This is particularly cringe-y when Zara, who's living with her mom to save money, barges right in on the two of them in bed and ends up with a really quite funny head injury, as one would.
The setting: Hollywood, a mysterious land where Brooke, a supposedly acclaimed writer who nonetheless seems to spend all of her time not writing, lives in the most lavish and picture-perfect seaside home you could possibly imagine, and Chris lives in a modern mansion with a puzzlingly enormous front door, as if he's expecting Chewbacca to drop by. The chemistry: OK, so Chris comes to Brooke's house looking for Zara, and walks right in when Brooke doesn't answer his knock. And when she, irritated, asks if he always just lets himself in, he says, "Well, I'm famous, so .
..," and if you could bottle the charm with which Efron delivers the line, you'd need a lot of bottles.
Efron and Kidman are basically adorable together, even though he gets all the good lines and she mostly just smiles at him. (Efron also at one point sings along to a Cher song and I thought my soul left my body, but in a good way.) The life lessons learned: Knock on your mom's bedroom door before entering.
Rating: RATING GUIDE Not even worth hate-watching • — If there's nothing else to watch, try this • — Watchable, some semblance of plot • — Cute, heartwarming • — Cult classic Get local news delivered to your inbox!.
