First-time writer director Hallie Meyers-Shyer calls Home again, starring Reese Witherspoon, a modern rom-com, as it explores current trends in love and life such as women choosing to divorce. However, Witherspoon herself isn’t even sure the movie qualifies as a rom-com at all, “[i]t’s about that very particular post-divorce time, and the insecurity and guilt that comes with it — so it isn’t really a romantic comedy.”
The film centers on 40-year-old Alice who is a mother of two, trying to make things work after a broken up marriage. Somehow she finds herself boarding three aspiring filmmaker brothers in her guesthouse. Meyers told EW that the three brothers together kind of represent the perfect man, when a relationship lights up between Alice and one of the brothers in his late 20s. This particular situation of an older divorcée taking in three young men into her home, was actually born from reality. “When a friend of mine was growing up in L.A. her mother took in these three guys,” says Meyers-Shyer.
Interestingly, the romantic fling part of the movie isn’t the crux of the story. Witherspoon tells EW that while there’s definite romance in the movie, “[i]t’s not about a woman finding love; it’s about a woman finding the best version of herself — and that’s very modern.”
Home Again hits cinemas on September 8
