A Family Affair’s ending was meant to be a happy one, and why won’t it be? Who in their right mind can handle a climax with such beautiful people leaving us with sad faces? Thankfully, Richard LaGravenese’s Netflix film has a fairytale ending where the boy gets the girl eventually and expresses his feelings without being too cringy. But, you see, the concluding conversation between the two lovebirds, Brooke Harwood (Nicole Kidman) and Chris Cole (Zac Efron), isn’t as simple as it seems. It has a lot of references and a deeper meaning attached to it, which, in a way, define their characters and also hint at their future.
While trying to propose to Brooke in the shopping mall, Chris said he didn’t want to be an “island for one” anymore. It was a reference to Chris’ narcissistic life, in which he never wanted anyone to stay on his island for too long. He would invite them as guests and maybe let them spend some time with him, but he would never allow them to stay forever. He would eventually give them a pair of diamond earrings and just part ways like that, as he didn’t want to get used to someone’s presence on his island. However, when Brooke came into his life, this Icarus wasn’t afraid to fly close to the sun anymore. He wanted to take that leap of faith and give his relationship with Brooke a chance. But even though he is literally proposing to her, he fails to find the right words. He just tells her that he wants to make a list and do some shopping with her for the rest of his life. But you can understand the reason why Chris is so afraid to commit. Before becoming an actor—sorry, my bad, a celebrity—he had lost his mother and his brother, and it really broke him. He didn’t really want to feel that pain again, which was the reason why he actively chose not to get attached to someone or let someone get too attached to him. He remained emotionally unavailable and often acted rudely to set a boundary around him, but things changed when Brooke walked into his life.
After Chris proposed, Brooke wasn’t sure if she was ready to date a guy who was 16 years younger than her. It was a long shot, and there was no guarantee that it’d work out between them. In short, Brooke had her doubts because she had already lost her husband, Charlie, and didn’t want to get into any relationship that would eventually end. Maybe she didn’t have the emotional capacity to see someone again, or maybe things with Charlie didn’t end on good terms. Charlie wanted to leave Brooke before he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, but Brooke never got a chance to talk about it after his diagnosis. The conversation just hung in the air between them, and Brooke clung to that sadness and confusion even after Charlie’s death.
As mentioned earlier, Brooke really wanted to go out with someone. She just didn’t have the strength to face how it ended. It would break her completely, which was why she never dated anyone again. But Brooke’s chance encounter with Chris was something that she had no control over. She really felt alive but kept things casual, as she didn’t want to get hurt because that’s what she believed would eventually happen. Even when Chris proposed to her in the end, she was skeptical about the whole ordeal, but then remembered what her mother-in-law, Leila Ford, had told her. Leila said that the end is none of our business. Brooke loved being with Chris, and that’s the beginning and the end of it. She followed Leila’s advice and jumped in at the deep end without any further ado, as she trusted the man standing by her side.
A year later, Brooke even finished her book, “Second Time Around.” If you remember, she had been writing the same book at the beginning of the film when her mother-in-law-cum-editor, Leila, felt that Brooke needed to go out and meet people. And she needed to live a life to write about it. Thankfully, that’s what Brooke eventually did, and she met a wonderful man named Chris. She was able to share her feelings and experiences with her readers in the book, which ended up becoming a bestseller. As far as Chris was concerned, he finally decided to play the role of a dad, which was written by Zara’s friend, Stella. And yes, Zara was producing that film, as she always wanted to. So maybe being in love made both Brooke and Chris better people. But what’s in there for Zara Ford?
As soon as Zara found out about her mother and boss’ affair, she was skeptical about the entire thing for two apparent reasons. She knew Chris too well, maybe better than anyone else. She wanted to keep her mother to herself, but finally realized she needed to loosen the grip as her mother too had a life of her own. But in the end, both of these things changed for Zara as she herself went through a transformation. Zara was so focused on her own problems, her own life, and her own career that she failed to notice that people around her were struggling too. Through her best friend, Eugenie, Zara realized that she had become too self-centered and only thought about herself and not Chris and her mother’s happiness when she found out about their relationship. As Zara’s perspective of life changed, she accepted the fact that Chris wasn’t a bad person after all; he just pretended to be one because he was afraid of getting hurt. As far as her mother is concerned, Zara realizes that she has a life, too, and she needs to let Brooke live it on her own terms for the sake of her sanity. She eventually planned a chance encounter between these two lovebirds in a shopping mall, where Chris finally gathered enough courage to propose to Brooke, though not in the way we had imagined. But let’s just say he’ll learn and up his game. They do end up together, and that’s a start, right?
