Movie Summary of The Kids Are All Right by Michael The Moviegoer.
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT = ***
“Just All Right”
Critics have been falling all over themselves to lavish high praise on this film which was an audience favorite at Sundance earlier this year. But it doesn’t live up to the buzz and the hype. As the title suggests, “The Kids Are All Right” is just all right.
It’s entertaining, well-made, sharply written and wonderfully acted. There are moments of high drama and of insane comedy. So I can see why people are loving it. But are those die-hard fans ignoring the fact that the ending is clumsy and awkward? It simply doesn’t work at all.
Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a married lesbian couple who are raising two teenage kids, a son and a daughter, that each of them bore as a result of an anonymous sperm donor played by Mark Ruffalo. Their daughter, beautifully played by Mia Wasikowska, turns 18 and decides she wants to meet her sperm donor dad. When she brings Ruffalo into their lives it upsets the family balance and creates a strange romantic triangle.
Perhaps the Sundance audience was cheering the concept more than the film. There are enough great moments here to recommend seeing it. But let’s not put it up on a pedestal and call it one of the year’s great cinematic achievements.
Yes, there are notable award-worthy performances given by Bening and Moore. They handle the complications of fluctuating between precise comic timing and heavy heartfelt drama with the skill of a tightrope walker. It’s a pleasure to watch these ladies work so well together here.
Lesbian writer-director Lisa Cholodenko wisely avoids turning her film into any sort of heavy-handed political message delivery system. She shows us that married life between a lesbian couple comes with all the same challenges, problems and insecurities that any relationship faces. But Moore’s character comes across as depressingly unhappy until she meets and has an affair with Ruffalo. During and after her male sexual encounter, Moore’s character suddenly becomes euphorically happy.
I’m not suggesting that the audience should be happier if the Moore character switches sides and becomes straight. But we do want her to be happy. If she found true happiness in having an affair with another woman, that would be fine. So the choices she makes in the end seem unrealistic given the circumstances.
But because relationships are always complicated, in reality people often make bad choices and wrong decisions. Maybe it’s wrong for me to criticize a film because it didn’t take me to my desired destination. I can see why others might see past this to find a better film.
DVD Double Feature: It’s nice to see Mark Ruffalo return to his indie roots. In 2000 he emerged from obscurity in Kenneth Lonegran’s wonderful indie drama “You Can Count On Me”. Ruffalo and Laura Linney play estranged siblings who re-enter each others lives while Linney is raising her 8-year old son. When Ruffalo forms a special bond with her son, the dramatic fireworks begin.
Michael The Moviegoer
