Firstly, I have to tell you that Chosen Family is a rom-com. I know, I know, I wasn’t keen either, but it stars Heather Graham and Julia Stiles. OK, I’ll give it a chance.
Chosen Family stars Graham, Stiles, John Brotherton, Thomas Lennon, Andrea Savage, Michael Gross, Julie Halston, Odessa Rae and Mark Famiglietti. The movie is written and directed by Graham.
Graham has directed before, back in 2018, with a movie called Half Magic. This is only the second movie she has written and directed.
The Story
The story for Chosen Family is:
Yoga teacher Ann is trying to find inner peace despite having a manic family, a miserable dating life, and an inability to say no that keeps her busy trying to fix everyone else’s problems.
This is one of the main issues I have with rom-coms: *insert female star* and *insert male star* take the next 90 minutes to get together. I’m the same with Agatha Christie stories; someone gets killed, 90 minutes of filler, and they find out who did it.
We meet Ann (Graham), a Yoga teacher who can’t find love. Yes, someone as hot as Heather Graham cannot find a boyfriend. Ann has a weird family and friends, including Clio (Styles), who is in and out of rehab.
Steps Steve (Brotherton) and a relationship start. The problem is Steve’s daughter, who’s a spoilt little brat and doesn’t like Ann. There are times I couldn’t help but think a good clip around the ear would have sorted the daughter out.
The Cast
From the outset, I could tell that Chosen Family was an indie movie. There is a quality that doesn’t have corporate money. This is a good thing though, as there is also no corporate interference.
The cast is really good. We know that Graham is a good actor; she’s proved herself worthy, many times, in a lot of very good movies.
The rest of the cast all do a stellar job. Weirdly, I haven’t seen Stiles in much else than 10 Things I Hate About You, which I love, and the Bourne Movies. It was nice to see her here and again, no complaints about her character or acting.
The Direction
Graham has worked with directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, in Boogie Nights. OK, so PTA has a style of his own and also has company money to back up his movies. In Chosen Family, Graham, as I said, doesn’t have the money or her own style yet.
The direction is competent enough, but there’s nothing outstanding, but then, Chosen Family is a rom-com, not an Avengers movie. It doesn’t need to be overly styled, it just needs to see the two leads get together.
The writing is the other issue, the movie is a little all over the place. One minute it’s a sweet family comedy, the next they are talking about how Clio needs to go back to rehab or she’s going to die.
Another strange thing about Chosen Family is the cleavage. There is an awful lot of cleavage in the movie, including Graham in a bikini and a couple of nudey love scenes. I think it’s because I’m just not used to seeing this kind of thing these days, it was odd.
I’m not complaining, Graham looks stunning, but I couldn’t help but think that if this was a male director, it would have been frowned upon. As it was Graham directing herself, it’s OK?
Overall
Chosen Family was better than I thought it would be. I mean, it’s not the movie of the year for me, but it was more enjoyable than most of the junk Hollywood is dumping on us lately.
The cast is solid, but the story is flimsy. The young girl who tries to get between Ann and Steve is an annoying little git, but then, she’s supposed to be. This is a perfect date movie, your other half will probably love the rom-com side of it, and you can admire how stunning Graham looks, it’s win win.
I’m giving Chosen Family a middle-of-the-road 2.5 out of 5 stars. I can’t see myself watching again, but I know Mrs Boba would have liked it.
Chosen Family is getting a VoD release on the 21st of April.
