Apples Never Fall,like most of Moriarty’s novels,was set in Sydney,but here the action has been transplanted to Florida (but filmed in Queensland) and centres on the Delaney family.
Stan (Sam Neill) and Joy (Annette Bening) have just sold their successful tennis training academy and are ready to embrace retirement. The entire family’s lives have revolved around tennis:Stan was a former star turned coach whoalmostcoached the world’s best player,and Joy was a champion who sacrificed playing at Wimbledon to have a family.
Their four adult children – hippyish free spirit Amy (Alison Brie),yuppie venture capitalist Troy (Jake Lacy),laid-back surfer Logan (Australian Conor Merrigan Turner) and youngest daughter Brie (another relative newcomer,Australian Essie Randles) – all grew up playing tennis,but none achieved the prodigy status Stan would have liked. And Stan – Neill in one of his most gruff turns – never lets any of them forget,either through passive-aggressive asides or outright hostility.
Unsurprisingly,there are simmering tensions from all quarters and a family dinner in the first 15 minutes sets the tone:Stan’s bitterness colours his interactions with everyone,and Joy tries to play peacekeeper between him and the children.
Each of these now tennis-averse offspring are also slightly lost. Amy can’t hold down a job or a relationship;money-focused Troy’s marriage has ended,and now he’s seeing his boss’s wife;Logan’s long-term partner is moving away,but he can’t bring himself to leave his comfort zone and go with her;and Brie is questioning whether her upcoming marriage to Gina (Paula Andrea Placido) is the right move. But it’s Joy’s resentments that bubble to the surface first,and,mostly in flashback – the story jumps around in time – we see her and Stan arguing ferociously.