Alice is turning 40, a mother of two girls is separated from her husband, Austen (Michael Sheen; Masters of Sex), and just moved across the country into her famous filmmaker father's house in Los Angeles. The night of her birthday celebration she and her friends meet three 20 something guys at a bar and continue the party at her house. After they have all passed out, she finds herself cleaning up – the ever dutiful mom. When Alice's mother (Candace Bergen; Murphy Brown) brings the girls home before school she starts chatting up the guys and suggests they stay in Alice's guesthouse since they have nowhere else to go.
Harry (Pico Alexander; A Most Violent Year), George (Jon Rudnitsky; Saturday Night Live), and Teddy (Nat Wolff; Paper Towns) are the director, writer, and star of a winning short film and best friends who came to L.A. to have their movie-making dreams come true. After living essentially with Alice and her daughters though, they learn there is more to life, as they become surrogate father figures, friends, and babysitters. Of course, in the end, the guys get their film made, the girls are encouraged to be their best and Alice musters up the courage to divorce Austen once and for all.
While Witherspoon is good in pretty much any role she takes on, this one isn't much of a stretch acting wise for her. Alice is cute and friendly with moments of depression and Witherspoon knows that character fairly well by now. Bergen is great as her mother and reminded me why I loved so much. Alexander, Wolff, and Rudnitsky are all cute enough to get by and their camaraderie seems genuine making the best friends plot believable. Sheen seems too old to be Alice's husband though and Alexander is too young to be her love interest.
The Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition video with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The colors are vivid and the whites are clean and crisp making everything against the stark background of the house pop. The DTS-HD Master audio 5.1 is what you would expect with the dialogue clearly relegated to the center channel. The only extra offered is the audio commentary by writer/Director Hallie Meyers-Shyer and Producer Nancy Meyers, which is a little disappointing.
While there are some inspirational moments in the movie and Alice's relatable inner struggles, there isn't much substance to make this movie more than a fun few hours of escape. Not serious enough for a serious drama, yet not funny enough to compete with the recent Bad Moms and Girls' Trip, the movie kind of loses its place in the grand scheme of things. I'm not even sure I would call it a true rom-com as she doesn't end up with the guy at the end.
Divorced single moms in their 30's and 40's will definitely relate but this certainly doesn't have mass appeal. It's cute enough…but cute is about all it is.
Grade: C
