Trust me, this news is just what your day needs: the trailer for Reese Witherspoon's rom-com Home Again has arrived, and it looks like it has all the ingredients necessary to get the genre back on track. Not only does the film star the 41-year-old actor who brought Legally Blonde's Elle Woods to life, but it hails from first-time filmmaker Hallie Meyers-Shyer — daughter of rom-com legend, Nancy Meyers. And if you're under any illusion the newcomer will make rom-coms just like her mom's classics, it's clear Meyers-Shyer has her own unique style based on the song in the Home Again trailer alone.
The film's writer-director chose the '70s new wave rock hit "Just What I Needed" to score your introduction to the world of Witherspoon's Alice. Even though it's a classic, the song has retained its indie originality through the decades, and it fits perfectly with the vibe the trailer creates.
Alice is clearly feeling adrift in her life. According to Entertainment Weekly, the mother of two has temporarily left her husband, played by Michael Sheen, and invited three aspiring filmmakers (Pico Alexander, Nat Wolff, and Jon Rudnitsky) to move into her guest house. Each one of these men offer Alice a chance to explore a different facet of herself as she tries to decide what it is she wants out of life.
In the trailer, Alice describes herself as a "newly separated loser," but the impact she seems to have on the lives of the three men who enter her life so unexpectedly contradicts her assertion. "Just What I Needed" provides the perfect anthem for the mixed-up, modern family on display here. Not only do you get to see Alice cutting loose on her birthday and exploring her sexuality, you also see the men in her life bonding with her mom and her daughters.
Their arrangement may be unconventional, but all of these people appear to have something significant to offer to one another. In that way, the song choice may be a little on the nose, but it also captures the searching nature of the film's characters. Everyone from Alice to her maybe ex-husband is looking for a sense of fulfillment in the trailer, but in order to find it they have to accept the fact that the dynamics of love and family are far more complicated than they imagined.
This is one rom-com that seems worth getting excited over, and not just because of Witherspoon. It looks like Meyers-Shyer has taken the best parts of her mom's rom-com magic and added her own wonderfully adventurous twists. Home Again could herald the arrival of a new master of rom-coms when it hits theaters on Sept. 8, and yes, that is exactly what the genre needs right now.
