The Kids Are All Right

"The Kids Are All Right"
Starring: Annette Benning, Juliane Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson
Directed by: Lisa Cholodenko
106 minutes

The latest indie that faired well and garnered attention during its Sundance film festival run is a film of good intention, but strives for too little. It's about a modern day lesbian couple living in LA, both parenting two adolescent teens who wish to seek out their birth father. A-listers were cast in the pivotal roles of the film. Annette Benning plays Nic, an ambitious doctor to Juliane Moore's somewhat misguided Jules, they play the believable off beat couple. It's no secret that Benning is older than Moore, but they're age difference is of only two years. They work well together as the film quickly establishes that they're a well off couple.

The kids are played by Mia Wasikowska, the same girl who starred in "Alice in Wonderland," here she is a soon to be college freshman, littered with all the anxiety and hormones a normal girl of her age possesses. Her younger brother, played by Josh Hutcherson skateboards, snorts pills, and gets into trouble with his unbalanced best friend, much to his "mom's" dismay. The two kids seek out their father Paul, played by the excellent Mark Ruffalo. Paul never graduated college and now runs a successful restaurant. He's drawn to the willingness of the kids attempt to seek him out, and it looks for a while a healthy relationship could be established.

Nic wears the pants in the family, she overlooks and corrects Jul at any desirable moment, Cholodenko's believes this serves as a fresh and intriguing dynamic among the couple. The film actually puckers up anytime Ruffalo is one screen, he's always easy on the eye, and his look and style matched with his honest eyes make him intriguing even if he's a tad underwritten. The triangle of the three adults is unquestionably the backbone of the film, if only Cholodenko's screenplay could have offered more insight rather than the usual jousting of sexes, "The Kids Are All Right," could have been worthy of its adult cast.

Now, movies are movies, and once Paul meets Nic and Jules, something happens that throws off the balance of this newly formed semi-family. One of the problems with the film is that it prides itself upon being  real and honest, but the motivations and actions of certain characters rubbed me the wrong way in which I felt cheated. This isn't to say that whatever takes places can't happen, it certainly can, but from what we know about the characters and their universe, I wasn't pleased with what occurred.

Due to the actions of the adults, the children begin to rebel in their own ways. Confrontations arise, arguments ensue, and you can basically tell where the film is headed. When the end comes around, it's been a hard and rigorous journey for the characters to reach the end point and beginning of a new future, I wasn't interested or fulfilled when those moments came. Lessons are learned, and the films' message of love, friendship, and family having no clear definition is stamped on the film like it was run through an indie film assembly line with 100 movies concentrating on the same theme.

I'm reminded of a film which also starred Mark Ruffalo called "You Can Count on Me," here is a film where the characters flaws and actions are played out more realistically and with subtlety. The audience feels for these characters at the end. I prefer that film much more than "The Kids Are All Right."

In the end, the modesty of the writing, directing, and the performances is enough to not dislike the film, but to shrug it off once the credits start rolling. I imagine it will charm audiences who think that a film about two lesbians is something of risk these days.

Grade: 2.5/5