A FAMILY AFFAIR

Here is the honest tension. A FAMILY AFFAIR is well-made — Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, and Joey King all turn in appealing performances, and the film lands a genuinely warm message about family, rebukes self-centeredness, and gives its mother and daughter a redemptive road back to each other. Fans of lighthearted romance will find it fun.

But the same film runs on a creed Scripture doesn't share: that personal happiness is what matters most, and you should simply do what makes you happy. Around that center sit two implied fornication scenes, twice fueled by drunkenness, and a stream of foul language — nearly thirty obscenities, three "f" words, and eleven misuses of God's name.

So the pleasant surface and the good performances can't outweigh what the story celebrates and shows. Our answer is to skip this one.

Zara is a young Hollywood assistant to Chris Cole, an uber-famous action star who takes her — and nearly everyone else — for granted. Tired of a job that's going nowhere, she quits to chase her own dream of becoming a producer.

Then her world tilts. Chris meets Zara's mother, Brooke, and the two begin seeing each other — a romance that horrifies Zara, who knows all about Chris's playboy past. Caught between the boss who overlooked her and the mother she loves, Zara has to decide what she really believes about the man at the center of it all.

Three stars, and they're earned by the people on screen. Efron, Kidman, and King all deliver quality performances, and together they make a familiar formula pleasant to sit through. For fans of the genre, that's the draw.

The writing is the weak spot. The plot is predictable, clichéd, and unrealistic — a romantic comedy that doesn't innovate within its genre and telegraphs most of its turns. What redeems the storytelling is emotional rather than structural: the mother-daughter reconciliation gives the film real moral depth, and Zara's eventual repentance for her selfishness adds a note the plotting alone couldn't provide. It's an enjoyable watch for the right audience — just not a surprising or ambitious one.

At its core, A FAMILY AFFAIR preaches a Romantic gospel: characters justify their choices because those choices make them happy, and the film advises them to keep doing what feels good. That's a creed Scripture directly challenges — the heart that makes its own happiness the highest good has quietly replaced God at the center.

Yet the film isn't all of one piece. It carries real moral and redemptive threads too. It takes marriage seriously as a good thing, references Heaven positively, and prizes love. Its most honest movement is Zara's: selfish throughout, she's finally confronted by her best friend, repents, and apologizes. The reconciliation between mother and daughter is genuinely affecting, and the film's rebuke of self-centeredness is worth naming.

The film also includes a positive reference to an LGBT relationship, presenting it approvingly. Weigh that as you consider whether and with whom to watch.

Where the story goes badly wrong is in what it shows and shrugs at: sex outside marriage, twice reached through drunkenness, treated as ordinary. The film wants us to root for love while blurring the covenant that makes love safe. The longing underneath it — for a home, a family made whole — is real and good. But the happiness it chases can't be self-made. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).

There's genuine charm here — good actors, a warm word about family, a daughter who finally repents. But the story runs on a happiness-first creed, casual premarital sex, and a torrent of profanity that a family shouldn't have to filter. So our answer stands: skip it. Looking for something to enjoy together instead? Try our latest family-friendly picks.