Movies Reviews

The Kids Are All Right – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Jul 15, 2010, 15:59 GMT

$Story revolves around a brother and sister who set out to find their same-sex parents\' sperm donor, who totally upsets their family dynamic once he enters their lives.$

Story revolves around a brother and sister who set out to find their same-sex parents\' sperm donor, who totally upsets their family dynamic once he enters their lives. ...more

The Kids Are All Right breaks ground as one of the first mainstream films with big stars to portray a lesbian couple, married with teenaged children and living a suburban life.

Filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko does a superb job in gleaning the intimate, natural, realistic, and human aspects of this love story and it characters, and removes the “otherness” of their partnership.

The film deals with the conventional issues of everyday life and family, in ways that make their unconventional setup just another day in LA.

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore will be vying for awards next year for their work as a long-term couple grappling with issues ranging from raising teens, sex, porn, fidelity, middle age, power, history and the big bugaboo here, artificial insemination and identity.

Their sensitivity and skills manage the big emotions that come out of the events lives that are suddenly troubled.

We find the family at a pivotal time - the moms are about to send their daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska) off to college as they fret about their son Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and his choice of friends. Nic is a doctor and Jules who is chronically underemployed, worries that she is a financial burden while chafing under Nic’s iron rule of their home.

Laser and Joni, who were conceived through a sperm donation, decide to contact their father, Paul (Mark Ruffalo) and begin a tentative and secret relationship with him. The kids are growing apart from their moms, whose bickering, gay male porn habit and openness concerning their sexuality and emotions gets to be TMI.

They are keen to get on with their lives and feel they can’t in the sometimes stifling environment Jules and Nic unwittingly have created.

As for Nic and Jules, they’re facing middle age and the doubts that come along with that. Jules asks if Nic is no longer attracted to her and Nic isn’t so tough when faced with Jules’ relationship with Paul. And Paul is wearying of his status as a middle aged Lothario.

But the most important point the film makes is questioning the wisdom of seeking out a biological parent and once found, deciding to bring that person into one’s life. It’s a sensitive issue and dependent upon the writing, direction, and performances not to screw it up.

What makes this film important are the shimmering, precise, and breathtaking performances by Bening and Moore. These are two supremely talented actresses who cast in doubt the popular concept that women of a certain age in Hollywood can’t get interesting roles.

The huge life issues share space with the smallest ones as it does in our day to day lives, but the storytelling gifts of Bening, Moore and Cholodenko make magical moments of them, putting the film head and shoulders above the majority of independent domestic dramas that come our way.

35mm drama
Written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko
Opens July 9
Runtime: 104 minutes
MPAA: Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use
Country: USA
Language: English