Chosen Family
Ever since Heather Graham surprised Jon Favreau’s romantically-challenged character at the end of “Swingers,” you could consider me a fan. This isn’t to say that I’m a fan of everything she does, but I think she has a natural charisma to go with her beauty. Here, she also writes and directs, and while I think there are some things that are interesting with “Chosen Family,” it doesn’t quite succeed in being everything that it wants.
Graham plays Ann, a yoga instructor whose life is far away from the peace she tries to make for her students. She’s got a good circle of friends, but her family- between parents Dorothy and Alfred (Julie Halston and Michael Gross) and her just out of rehab sister Clio (Julia Stiles)- is more than a handful, and her dating life is, well, stagnant. One of her friends (Thomas Lennon) is trying to start a restaurant, her landlord is trying to get her to go viral so that she can make money, and her mother is trying to get her to listen to her music. In comes Steve (John Brotherton), a recently-divorced father who might be the guy Ann is looking for, if she can find in roads with his daughter, Lily (Ella Grace Helton).
This is Graham’s second feature as a writer-director (after “Half Magic”) and her efforts in both are very spotty. As a director I think she gets what she wants out of her actors better than she has a feel for the flow of scenes and staging, and I think- as a writer- she has a better sense of what she wants to say with this story than how it plays out. A lot of the bigger moments feel very stagey and doesn’t really connect on an emotional level, though some do, especially some key moments between Ann and Steve. That makes the most compelling elements in the film, with Ann really liking Steve, but having to navigate being “the new woman” in his life with Lily is a complication that feels fairly well played out. There are times when Lily feels like she’s over-written as an obnoxious kid, but we also understand the struggle Steve has to move through if things with Ann- or with anyone, for that matter- are going to work in the future. Based on what I’m familiar with in regards to Graham’s personal life- especially her family- there feels like there is some autobiography in this film, but unfortunately, “Chosen Family” feels anything but personal. It feels programmed.
