'A Family Affair' on Netflix: Breaking down that 'beautiful' supermarket scene

Spoiler alert! We're discussing major details about the ending of the romantic comedy "A Family Affair" (streaming now on Netflix).

Somewhere between the horned melons and avocados, Nicole Kidman found love in a grocery store.

That’s the gist of her new romantic comedy “A Family Affair,” in which she stars as a widowed memoirist named Brooke who falls for an unexpectedly soulful movie star, Chris Cole (Zac Efron), who is 20 years her junior. Trouble is, Brooke’s daughter, Zara (Joey King), has worked as Chris’ beleaguered assistant and revolts against her mother dating him. Eventually, Brooke acquiesces and breaks up with the hunky A-lister over Christmas.

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Feeling guilty, and finally ready to accept her mom’s happiness, Zara stages a surprise reunion for Brooke and Chris at a supermarket, where they vow to give their relationship another go. As they kiss, a gentle rain falls on the vegetables, surrounding the couple with mist – a clever practical illusion that was orchestrated by Zara, an aspiring Hollywood producer.

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“We rigged up a little rainstorm over the produce,” explains screenwriter Carrie Solomon. At the film’s Los Angeles premiere, “it actually got applause. It was kind of a joke on movie magic, which wound up being funny and beautiful at the same time. That’s exactly the balance we were trying to strike with the whole movie.”

Netflix movie 'A Family Affair' originally had an alternate ending

“A Family Affair” initially had a different finale. Early in the film, Chris takes Brooke on their first date to a Hollywood backlot, where they dress up in top hats and pose with retro feather fans (which director Richard Lagravenese describes as a nod to Kidman’s 2001 film “Moulin Rouge!”). For a while, the movie ended with them reconnecting on that same soundstage.

“But after shooting the movie and seeing it, we realized that the ending didn’t satisfy us emotionally,” Lagravenese says. “It was both too trope-y and not trope-y enough. It also didn’t incorporate Zara enough and didn’t give us the right cap to her journey.”

Solomon always knew she wanted to end the movie somewhere unlikely. “It was funny, when we put our heads together to think about what was exciting to Chris Cole, it was the ordinary,” she says. Because he is so famous and cannot often venture out in public, “there was something about a grocery store that made it oddly desirable for the two of them to find normalcy at the same time and place.”

Viewers quickly catch on that it’s hardly a regular supermarket: Zara sits behind the cash register running the lights and rain machine, and she fills the store with a bunch of paid extras who won’t swarm Chris as soon as he walks in. “It’s essentially a movie set,” Solomon says. “That’s just a wink-nudge (to the audience) that nothing about this is ordinary.” At the same time, “we were trying to place it as much as possible in the real world. It’s just two people who fell in love at the end of the day.”  

Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron took shopping breaks in between takes

“A Family Affair” reunites Kidman, 57, and Efron, 36, after their steamy 2012 thriller “The Paperboy.” On the first day of shooting this film, “they just fell into each other’s arms and caught up as friends,” Lagravenese recalls. “There was this comfort and ease and respect with one another that just went right into (their characters)."

They got a particular kick out of shooting at the grocery store. The ending was filmed at Trancas Country Market in Malibu, California, where the cast and crew were given a tab to get anything they wanted.

“It’s like having your own pantry the size of a grocery store,” Solomon says with a laugh. “I remember by the end of the day, Nicole was like, ‘I could really go for a kale chip.’ I was like, ‘Aisle 3!’ We were all just kind of running around between shots shopping. It was a really goofy thing – talk about wish fulfillment.”