Review

Review Date: 18-July-10
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

It is fun to witness the dynamics of someone else's family, to get a glimpse of its recurring stories, homespun phrases, understood roles, and modes of interaction. At least it's fun when the family shares genuine affection (no crazies or violence) as is the case in The Kids Are All Right. Lisa Cholodenko's droll, touching drama features a family different than most we see on film. Not just because both parents are women, but because parents and children alike are shown with all their bumps and warts in complicated but plausible situations. The head of the clan is Nic (Annette Bening), a doctor who serves as breadwinner and taskmaster. Her partner Jules (Julianne Moore) is proof that opposites attract, being the flighty, insecure, touchy-feely type. It's a hoot to hear some of Jules' new agey expressions coming out of Nic's mouth, a sure sign of many years together and a common maternal purpose. Their daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska from Alice in Wonderland) is preparing for college and adulthood while her younger brother Laser (yep, Jules picked that name) is trying to form a masculine sense of self. (He is played by the always stellar Josh Hutcherson.) Together these characters undergo everyday tensions (Nic is too fond of wine, the teenagers aren't big on opening up), but all in all they seem to be happy.

In a classic example of a wrench being thrown into a system, the kids decide to look up the sperm donor who enabled their conceptions. (Each mother had one child by the same donor.) This stems from an understandable curiosity which the kids think can be satisfied with one look. Thus they introduce Paul into their world, and audiences discover the part for which Mark Ruffalo was born. Ruffalo is a great actor with a definite range, but Paul's bohemian, scruffy-sexy, serpent-in-Eden charm fits him to a tee. Paul is one of those people who buck all the rules and still get whatever they want, probably without realizing that this is not normal. The kids — his kids — crave more of him once they meet, and before long he is thrilling them as a life explorer and father figure. He also excites the ever-searching Jules, whom he hires to landscape his yard. The only member of the family he doesn't win over is Nic, who finds his easygoing potency both threatening and distasteful.

The presence of an outsider escalates the family's tensions to real strains, and the question of its resiliency forms the core of the story. I think Nic's main problem with Paul is that he wants to enjoy the benefits of a family without putting in the effort to earn them. She appears to be right in this criticism and the underlying implication that the daily give-and-take between people is what forges powerful bonds. Of course where effort is needed people make mistakes. That is when the bonds are tested, but it also might be when they are reaffirmed. As Jules says in a moving scene near the end, keeping a marriage and family together is effin' hard. Watching The Kids Are All Right as slightly more than a casual observer, one hopes (and believes) that it is possible.

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