Age-gap relationships are a hot topic as of late, with many viewing them quite unfavorably both in real life and on the movie screen.
We saw this generally unfavorable opinion of these sorts of relationships through the public response to Jenna Ortega’s film, Miller’s Girl, earlier this year.
In the film, Ortega plays an 18-year-old girl engaged in an inappropriate relationship with her creative writing teacher 30 years her senior, a fact that drew plenty of criticism from the general public.
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However, another example of this comes even more recently, and this time, the genders are reversed.
Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman are set to star in the upcoming movie A Family Affair as love interests, an idea that some people are highly uncomfortable with.
This is because Efron, who is 36, is twenty years younger than the 56-year-old Kidman, who will be making her first appearance as the star of a romantic comedy in several years.
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The film sees an actor in his mid-30s pursue a relationship with the mother of his assistant, with the tumultuous relationship between the pair affecting the two’s relationship.
The trailer for the Netflix film, which features a very intimate scene between Kidman and the Iron Claw actor, has gotten some hefty pushback from fans online who feel uncomfortable about the age gap.
“What is up with the resurgence of so many ‘romance’ movies with a weird a** age gap?” asked one commenter, while another said: “Geez, they just keep making movies lately about older women going for men that are half their age.”
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While these criticisms have been seen across the internet, they have frequently been paired with defenders of the film’s subject matter.
One user on social media questioned why people were so alarmed, stating: “It's only 20 years and they are both middle-aged.”
“I'm honestly not sure why so many people are so nonplussed over this.”
Keen movie fans will notice that both the plot of this movie and its signature pairing are a bit familiar.
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For starters, Efron and Kidman have shared the silver screen once before, as they both starred in the film Paper Boy as love interests, though their relationship in the 2012 thriller was vastly different compared to their upcoming performance.
Alternatively, people have also been quick to criticize the film for its similarities to The Idea of You, a movie recently released on Amazon Prime that similarly features a famous younger man pursuing an older woman, with some questioning the originality of the Netflix film.
“Why does this feel it's kinda like The Idea Of You, but a comedic version?” questioned one commenter underneath the Netflix film’s trailer.
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A Family Affair will be available to stream on Netflix on June 28.
Topics: Netflix, Film and TV, Zac Efron
Dylan Murray