'Kids Are All Right,' the 'moms' are great actors
Annette Bening, left, and Julianne Moore are two Moms in a New Age unconventional family.
(Focus Features)
The Kids Are All Right
Running time: 106 minutes
MPAA rating: R (strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use)
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Say goodbye to old fashioned unconventional movie families, where a d-i-v-o-r-c-e gummed up the traditional works or brave single moms ventured into the workplace.
In "The Kids Are All Right," there are two reasonably happy mothers, two children from different moms and no father figure until one of the teenage kids begins to secretly investigate.
Guess who's coming to dinner?
Ding dong, sperm donor on the front porch.
It has long been my theory that good acting can overcome many structural obstacles, and that's exactly what happens in this silly, but heartfelt tale of a happy family unit disrupted once the man who made it all possible enters the picture.
Three very good actors, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, join up-and-comers Mia Wasikowska (who played the title role in the recent "Alice in Wonderland") and Josh Hutcherson (the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" remake) in an edgy cinematic oddity that works.
Nic (Bening), a Type A+ physician, and Jules (Moore), a stay-at-home mom who'd like to pursue a landscaping career, became a couple in college. An openly lesbian couple will shock few these days. Nic and Jules took the relationship a step further, however. They each conceived a child from the same sperm donor.
Paul (Ruffalo), an organic farmer who runs an earthy California restaurant, gets a call out of the blue one day: One of his donor kids wants to get in touch.
Director Lisa Cholodenko ("Cavedweller" for Showtime) co-wrote the script with longtime friend Stuart Blumberg, one of three writers on "The Girl Next Door."
"The Kids Are All Right", perhaps in an effort to appear unabashedly daring, limits its wide appeal a bit with graphic sex, drugs and a mom-mom dynamic that resorts to gay male porn when they think the kids are asleep.
Yet the filmmakers -- no, make that the excellent actors -- also supply a genuine sweetness that softens the visual blow much of the time. Bening, for instance, who was magnificent recently as a tortured middle-aged mother who gave a daughter away at birth in "Mother and Child," scores again here in chopped-off hair and fidgety persona.
Nic won't admit she has a drinking problem, or that she's a control freak. She does and she is. But when the script allows Bening to reveal some of her character's insecurities and frustrations this movie (like the kids) is all right.
Moore's seemingly flighty Jules, who feels somewhat edged out of the family dynamic even in her own home, might catch some of her fans off-guard. Nominated four times for an Academy Award, including twice in 2003 ("Far From Heaven," "The Hours"), Moore takes some acting chances that work about half the time. When they don't, the Jules character slips to the cusp of caricature.
The good news is that Moore redeems herself for the most part with an emotional soliloquy she has to stand in front of a blaring television to deliver. Stand and deliver she does, though. That propels a drama with comedy into an acceptably rewarding entertainment zone.
As Paul, Ruffalo ("The Brothers Bloom") has his quirky moments as well. Frankly, though, this is not Ruffalo's movie. His role, while key to launching most of the important plot points, is that of the igniter.
You know, like an organic farmer/restaurant owner.
In "The Kids Are All Right," there are two reasonably happy mothers, two children from different moms and no father figure until one of the teenage kids begins to secretly investigate.
Guess who's coming to dinner?
Ding dong, sperm donor on the front porch.
It has long been my theory that good acting can overcome many structural obstacles, and that's exactly what happens in this silly, but heartfelt tale of a happy family unit disrupted once the man who made it all possible enters the picture.
Three very good actors, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, join up-and-comers Mia Wasikowska (who played the title role in the recent "Alice in Wonderland") and Josh Hutcherson (the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" remake) in an edgy cinematic oddity that works.
Nic (Bening), a Type A+ physician, and Jules (Moore), a stay-at-home mom who'd like to pursue a landscaping career, became a couple in college. An openly lesbian couple will shock few these days. Nic and Jules took the relationship a step further, however. They each conceived a child from the same sperm donor.
Paul (Ruffalo), an organic farmer who runs an earthy California restaurant, gets a call out of the blue one day: One of his donor kids wants to get in touch.
Director Lisa Cholodenko ("Cavedweller" for Showtime) co-wrote the script with longtime friend Stuart Blumberg, one of three writers on "The Girl Next Door."
"The Kids Are All Right", perhaps in an effort to appear unabashedly daring, limits its wide appeal a bit with graphic sex, drugs and a mom-mom dynamic that resorts to gay male porn when they think the kids are asleep.
Yet the filmmakers -- no, make that the excellent actors -- also supply a genuine sweetness that softens the visual blow much of the time. Bening, for instance, who was magnificent recently as a tortured middle-aged mother who gave a daughter away at birth in "Mother and Child," scores again here in chopped-off hair and fidgety persona.
Nic won't admit she has a drinking problem, or that she's a control freak. She does and she is. But when the script allows Bening to reveal some of her character's insecurities and frustrations this movie (like the kids) is all right.
Moore's seemingly flighty Jules, who feels somewhat edged out of the family dynamic even in her own home, might catch some of her fans off-guard. Nominated four times for an Academy Award, including twice in 2003 ("Far From Heaven," "The Hours"), Moore takes some acting chances that work about half the time. When they don't, the Jules character slips to the cusp of caricature.
The good news is that Moore redeems herself for the most part with an emotional soliloquy she has to stand in front of a blaring television to deliver. Stand and deliver she does, though. That propels a drama with comedy into an acceptably rewarding entertainment zone.
As Paul, Ruffalo ("The Brothers Bloom") has his quirky moments as well. Frankly, though, this is not Ruffalo's movie. His role, while key to launching most of the important plot points, is that of the igniter.
You know, like an organic farmer/restaurant owner.
