Her mom directed some of the best rom-coms of all time. Now she’s made one of her own. – Washington Post

Alice (Reese Witherspoon) is a single mom living in Los Angeles whose life changes unexpectedly when she allows three young men to move in with her. (Open Road Films)

With her filmmaking debut, Home Again, a romantic comedy about a 40ish single mom who embarks on a fling with a much younger man, Hallie Meyers-Shyer proves that shes her mothers daughter.

Mom, in this case, is filmmaker Nancy Meyers, a cinematic powerhouse with a track record of hit rom-coms that includes What Women Want, Somethings Gotta Give, The Holiday, Its Complicated and The Intern along with a reputation for luxe production values that has earned her the sobriquet of queen of interior design porn. No slouch in the romantic comedy biz himself, Hallies father, and Nancys ex, is writer-director-producer Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride).

In Home Again, theres no mistaking the influence of Meyers, who was a producer on the new film. The story centers on interior decorator Alice Kinney (Reese Witherspoon), who, after an ugly breakup, has moved from New York to the comfortable Los Angeles home she grew up in with her late filmmaker father and retired actress mother (Candice Bergen). True to the values of a Nancy Meyers movie, that house which is sure to inspire design lust takes center stage. Its there that Alice takes in three 20-something filmmakers as lodgers: a sensitive writer (Jon Rudnitzky), a tech-savvy actor (Nat Wolff), and a sexy director (Pico Alexander). The latter becomes, briefly, Alices boy toy.

Meyers-Shyer, 30, spoke by phone from Los Angeles about her debt to her parents and her desire to make her own way in the Hollywood jungle.

Q: The apple obviously doesnt fall far from the tree. Your mothers influence is apparent, particularly in your films attention to meticulously curated domestic interiors. I was struck by one scene around the breakfast table that featured platters of bacon on blue-and-white china. It was so mouthwatering and pretty, it was almost distracting. How important is production design to you?

A: Of all possible things I learned about from my mom, food on the table is just the smallest possible thing that she could have taught me. The larger lessons about having great heroines and great stories, about how warm and inviting her films are and how feminine they are are the themes I hope I carry on from her, more than anything having to do with set design or food. That said, my film does take place largely in a home and many of her films do as well where the house is a big character. I really hope that Home Again reflects me and my sensibilities.

Q: After graduating from the New School in Manhattan, you spent a year studying film at USC. But youve said your real education came on your parents film sets growing up. If youre trying to cut the apron strings, why work with your mother?

A: Carrying on the family business is a hard thing. As a debut filmmaker, you want to feel like you are paving your own way. But there was nobody better to have with me than someone who has been making, for so many years, romantic comedies with strong female characters. The thing I learned most from my mom was about layering my characters and making them nuanced, and not just types.

Q: Alices parents, like yours, are filmmakers. They seem to have been based on director John Cassavetes and his actress wife, Gena Rowlands. Is that deliberate?

A: Youre absolutely right. The character of [Alices father] is an amalgam of several 1970s filmmakers: Cassavettes; [Peter] Bogdanovich; [Paul] Mazursky. They were my influences while writing the film. The way in which I wanted to portray Los Angeles was inspired a lot by 70s films. I wanted to find a way to infuse that into the story, so I made him a 70s filmmaker. I wanted him to be someone who these three boys who are true lovers of cinema would be excited about to thumb through his scripts and photo albums. I consider the movie a love letter to film and Hollywood.

Q: Are you a particular fan of 70s American cinema?

A: Yes, I am. Its my favorite era. I watched a lot of movies from that period for research.

Q: You werent even born until 1987. How did you fall in love with that period?

A: I went to film school for a bit. Mostly, though, I watched a lot of movies with my parents. Movies of the 70s feel very grounded and character-driven to me. I love Jack Nicholson. I love Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait and Shampoo.

Q: Who do you relate to most in this film?

A: I find a little of myself in every character. I relate to Alice, of course, but also to the three boys trying to make it in Hollywood. I relate to Alices anxious older daughter, but also to the youngest daughter, because I also have an older sister. I can even relate to Alices ex, Michael Sheen, back in New York City. I put myself in every character.

Q: Do you perceive a decline or, as some have said, a crisis in romantic comedy?

A: It used to be a more commercial genre for studios, for sure, one in which big actors would star, going back to Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. It had great actors, major studios, big budgets. But its not just romantic comedies that have declined, as I see it. Movies about human beings are not being made as often. Theyve been replaced by superhero movies, action films. Its not as easy to get a romantic comedy made, but there is an audience for it. The Big Sick was a great example, and it showed that people want to embrace the genre.

Q: Is there a gender divide in the audience? Is there something about rom-coms that has ghettoized them as womens films?

A: Home Again is a womans story, through and through. Women do like romantic comedies, but in my experience, men love them, too. Im excited that an underserved audience is being served in this film.

Q: And that underserved audience is ...?

A: Women.

Q: ... or simply people who dont want to see another movie about space aliens?

A: Absolutely, that, too. One hundred percent.

Q: Theres a great line in the film about how, between the three guys who are living in Alices pool house, she has managed to combine the package into one perfect man: Ones her babysitter, ones her tech-support guru and the other is her lover.

A: I cant take credit for that line. The reference to the brains, the heart and the nerve is from The Wizard of Oz.

Q: Its a sad commentary on the male gender that it takes three of us to make one whole person.

A: I think Home Again is a really empowering movie for men. These are three passionate men who have real interests. It shows men in a really positive way.

Q: Theres another funny line, where a sleazy Hollywood movie producer tries to get the boys to change their vision for their first movie from a black-and-white art-house drama to a found-footage love story. Sounds ilke that one might come from personal experience.

A: Yes. When youre writing, you get to make a little bit of snide commentary. I definitely drew from past meetings with producers.

Q: The guy and the girl dont end up happily ever after. Are you trying to rewrite the rules with your first movie?

A: Thats just how the rom-com genre has been characterized. Home Again looks and feels like a romantic comedy, but ultimately thats not what this movie is about. Its not about a woman finding a man. Its about a woman finding herself.

Home Again (PG-13, 96 minutes). Opens Sept. 8 at area theaters.

See more here:
Her mom directed some of the best rom-coms of all time. Now she's made one of her own. - Washington Post