Home Again

Recently turned 40 and separated, a woman (Reese Witherspoon) moves back to Hollywood with her two daughters. Complications arise when three aspiring filmmakers (Pico Alexander, Nat Wolff, Jon Rudnitsky) move into her guest house and her husband (Michael Sheen) turns up looking to reconcile. Writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, the daughter of Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, turns out exactly the kind of slick, shallow comedy that Mom and Dad used to make—glib rather than funny, coy rather than subtle, leaning heavily on the kind of talent it needs but doesn’t deserve, and all sparkling with a spotless gleam that makes the Hallmark Channel look like film noir. The story moves with the predictable monotony of a Swiss clock that cuckoos every five minutes, and cheap jokes and wasted actors abound. J.L.