Wait, Didn't We Already See Zac Efron's New Movie... Earlier This Month?!

Summary A Family Affair shares similarities with The Idea of You, both featuring age-gap romances.

Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman have a 20-year age gap in real life, adding tension to their characters' relationship.

The resemblance between the two movies could impact A Family Affair's success, given the proximity of their release dates.

Zac Efron's upcoming film A Family Affair sounds and looks quite familiar to a different movie that was released in early May 2024, resulting in some drawing parallels between the two. The Netflix romantic comedy, directed by Richard LaGravenese and written by Carrie Solomon, stars Efron as a movie star who begins sleeping with his assistant's older mother, played by Nicole Kidman. In the second movie featuring Efron and Kidman as romantic interests, their characters engage in a love affair that frustrates Joey King's Zara, the aforementioned assistant and daughter at the center of the conflict, to no end.

A Family Affair, starring Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman, will premiere on June 28, 2024, on Netflix.

Although the Netflix movie's premise is what first made some think of an earlier 2024 rom-com, the trailer for A Family Affair strengthened the resemblances between both projects. In the teaser video, Zara awkwardly walks in on her mother, Brooke, having sex with her boss, Chris. Zara, who thinks of her boss as a self-absorbed, stereotypical Hollywood star, immediately disapproves of their relationship and tries to break them up. Given A Family Affair's star power and the recent resurgence of rom-coms, the Netflix film will likely be a hit (despite its similarities to a movie that already came out this year).

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A Family Affair's Story Is Very Similar To The Idea Of You

Both Films Depict Wide Age-Gap Romances

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It's hard not to think of the Amazon Prime Video film The Idea of You, which was released on May 2, 2024, when watching A Family Affair's trailer. Both are rom-coms (with A Family Affair seemingly leaning a little more into its comedic themes, while The Idea of You is more rooted in drama) featuring a romance between an older woman and a younger man, which is regarded by some as a social taboo. In the Netflix movie, Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman's characters start dating, while Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine's characters fall in love in the Amazon film.

If A Family Affair stays true (or close) to Efron and Kidman's ages in real life (which will be 36 and 56 when the movie premieres), its age gap will be quite larger than the difference between Hathaway and Galitzine's characters in the Amazon film.

However, A Family Affair and The Idea of You's romances are not their only similarities. The two rom-coms also include the older woman's daughter as a catalyst to the main conflict. Zara is trying desperately to drive her mother away from her boss, who she regards in a bad light, while Ella Rubin's Izzy is significantly affected by her mother's (Hathaway) highly publicized relationship with a younger man (Galitzine). Efron and Galitzine's respective characters are also both famous, with Efron's Chris being a movie star and Galitzine's Hayes being a singer in a boy band in The Idea of You.

Related 10 Best Quotes From The Idea Of You The Idea of You is a romance about an older woman and a young pop idol, with a script that poses questions about judging books by their covers.

How A Family Affair's Age-Gap Compares To The Idea Of You

A Family Affair's Zac Efron & Nicole Kidman Have A Larger Age Difference

A Family Affair's Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman have a 20-year age gap in real life, and the difference between their characters in the Netflix rom-com is unknown, as of the writing of this article. Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway is 12 years older than Nicholas Galitzine, and their characters' age gap is 16 years (which The Idea of You changed from the book, as Hayes and Solène's have a 19-year age difference in the novel).

A Family Affair Cast Role Nicole Kidman Brooke Harwood Zac Efron Chris Cole Joey King Zara Ford Lisa Koshy Eugenie Kathy Bates Leila Shirley MacLaine TBA

So, if A Family Affair stays true (or close) to Efron and Kidman's ages in real life (which will be 36 and 56 when the movie premieres), its age gap will be quite larger than the difference between Hathaway and Galitzine's characters in the Amazon film. However, the filmmakers behind A Family Affair might have either aged Efron up or Kidman down to make them a bit closer in age, or they could have gone in the other direction. Nevertheless, Efron and Kidman's age gap is eight years longer compared to The Idea of You's Hathaway and Galitzine's age difference.

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Will A Family Affair's Similarities To The Idea Of You Be A Problem?

The Netflix Film Might Be Too Much Like The Idea Of You

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Two rom-coms sharing similar plots is nothing new, but the fact that A Family Affair will be released less than two months after The Idea of You premiered is certainly worrying regarding its performance on the streaming platform. Some who may have seen and loved the Amazon rom-com could be dissuaded from watching the upcoming Netflix movie because they think it resembles The Idea of You too closely. After all, Anne Hathaway's 2024 rom-com was a success, meaning that many people watched it and will undoubtedly draw comparisons between it and A Family Affair.

Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman previously played love interests in the 2012 crime drama The Paperboy.

Of course, several rom-coms are like The Idea of You, but the proximity between its release date and the Netflix film's is what sets it apart from the others. On the contrary, the upcoming rom-com has a star-packed cast that will entice consumers. Many will watch anything starring Zac Efron or Nicole Kidman, but the movie still has to be good to avoid being seen as the lesser of the two. However, the fact that A Family Affair is a rom-com should also give it a boost given the genre's increased popularity in the past few years.