Chosen Family

A Rhode Island romcom, what couldn’t be more wonderful? Chosen Family, written and directed by, as well as starring, Heather Graham, sets out to tell a heart-warming story about a disgruntled yoga teacher. Ann (Heather Graham) is looking for love and peace of mind in her life. She has boy issues and her friends are trying to find the perfect man to sweep her off her tree pose. She meets a seemingly lovely man, Steve (John Brotherton), with a quirky young daughter, and follows her heart. Along the way she deals with her eccentric family and growing career as a wellness influencer. How will she reconcile with her family? And is Steve the man of her dreams? 

Ann and Steve don’t have much chemistry, the pacing of their romance feels awkward and extremely rushed. Everyone’s acting is convincing, but never stellar, with lots of excruciating smiles and creased eyes. The best characters are Dorothy (Julie Halston) and Roz (Andrea Savage), often stealing the scene with their comedic remarks and air of self-assuredness among the other characters.

“…a heart-warming story about a disgruntled yoga teacher…”

For a movie marketed as a rom-com, the ending is unusually complicated in the romantic direction of happily ever after. This is, essentially, the type of Taylor Swift, vanilla, beach-themed-bathroom movie your millennial cousin would like. It ends on a high note, with Ann’s “chosen family” coming full circle with the title and making a successful connection from beginning to end. 

The movie suffers from a glaringly obvious “Kenneth Branagh” issue, with the older director in the lead role, which almost never works and ends up being a self-involved production with a skewed sense of integrity. While I credit Heather Graham as being a genius for casting herself as the woman who gets to have sex scenes with the hot dad, haven’t we learned our lesson with the screenwriter (Tarantino) being cast in From Dusk Till Dawn?

In terms of production, the film is standard. The cinematography is good but there were too many random aerial shots and car footage used as filler. The scenic views of the coast are pretty and the sets are well decorated, crafting the perfect place to stage a love story. There are surprising technical problems with the audio, including audible mic feedback and poor sound quality in some scenes. The costumes are modern and domestic. I can tell the designer has some sort of knit fetish, not too far off for today’s millennial wardrobe. Falling short in some areas and exuding charm in others, while I did not fall totally in love with this movie as one expects from a rom-com, I would consider it “chosen family.”