"It's All Pretty Vanilla" - Why 'Home Again' Is Proof That You Really Can't Go Home Again...

There's really not much wrong with a feel-good, escapist lightweight comedy that you forget you saw the next day, and there are things to like about Home Again. But it's just so friggin' nice and with barely any conflict that it could give audiences a mild case of instant diabetes.

Reese Witherspoon has been acting in and/or producing some gritty stuff in recent years, such as the multi Emmy nominated TV series Pretty Little Lies, and Gone Girl but she's stepped back firmly into rom-com territory with this frothy piece written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, daughter of Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday). You can see the bloodline in the script in what is an affable outing that will no doubt irritate the hell out of a lot of people.

Witherspoon's Alice is recently separated and depressed on her 40th birthday, but when her friends take her out and she gets rat-arsed, she happily accepts the attentions of the much younger and very handsome Harry (Pico Alexander). Before you know it, the pair are in bed at Alice's equally handsome house which once belonged to her Academy Award-winning director dad. In a plotline that's very convenient, Harry and his two buds, George and Teddy (Jon Rudnitsky and Paper Towns' Nat Wolff) just happen to be filmmakers who worship Alice's dad's work starring his wife, played by Candice Bergen. Before you know it again, the guys have been installed in Alice's guest house until they can get on their feet, and so Alice has a live-in toy boy and some instant babysitters.

The trouble is that these guys are all just so NICE. Admittedly it makes a refreshing change from the usual douchebaggery of the young American fratboy we so often see, but all the guys need are halos to complete the picture. They're just too good to be true.

Michael Sheen plays Alice's husband who comes to visit unannounced and tries to re-mark his territory when he realises these young guns seem to have replaced him, including as father figures to his two young daughters. There are some amusing moments as male egos clash, but it's all pretty vanilla. Home Again does what it sets out to do, if that's what you like.