The Kids Are All Right Review

Published by Jeff Leins on July 28, 2010

At one moment in The Kids Are All Right, director Lisa Cholodenko frames the driveway of Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), a nondescript house in an idyllic suburban neighborhood.  Parked side-by-side are Nic’s practical family SUV and Jules’ rustic truck, a sign of two attracted opposites as much as each’s personal ambitions.

Inside is an ordinary dysfunctional family, like all the others on the block, nested in a home that is warm and welcoming, like their story, with a lived in feeling of being invited to dinner with old friends.  Cholodenko’s film effortlessly establishes two independent, lesbian women and their teenage children as a loving, relatable unit with familiar family issues.

Bening is in top form as Nic, a bespectacled physician straining to maintain a sense of normalcy.  Moore’s Jules is a zany free spirit with maybe, possibly plans to be a landscape designer.  Nic’s brainy daughter, Joni (Mia Wasikowska), and Jules’ athletic son, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), share a sperm donor and a curiosity about the man missing in their lives.

Enter Paul (Mark Ruffalo), a charming, “earthy” bachelor with a motorcycle and his own restaurant who, after an initial hesitation and a few awkward meetings, disrupts the family’s rhythmic balance by injecting confusion into their otherwise safe, cozy element.

Early scenes explore the characters’ sexuality, as if to move past the overt gay/straight labels of their relationships and on to the more meaningful components of their comfortable bond, or in Paul’s case a longing for that closeness.  He has a lot, the married couple doesn’t, and the kids are still figuring it all out, often to comedic outcomes.

But, once they’re all together, conversations during traditional dinners uncover deeper connections over Joni Mitchell or organic foods as Paul gradually becomes infused into the family, much to Nic’s chagrin.  Food plays a significant part of the dynamic, typically as temptations like Paul’s delicious pie or Nic’s affinity for red wine, and it’s over these meals that we get to know this fivesome.

In one truly remarkable scene, the camera lingers on Bening at the dinner table during a sweeping moment of realization and captures a progression of raw emotions that exposes her vulnerability, anger, disgust, and worthlessness.

Cholodenko, who also co-wrote with Stuart Blumberg, is a master of atmosphere, establishing environments of awkward tension or natural chemistry and allowing her talented cast to connect or conflict within that space.

However, her characterizations are distractingly archetypal at times, particularly the titular kids whose stories and reactions are secondary to the central drama between the adults.  Medals hangs on the bedpost of Joni, the overachiever.  Laser, the athletic type, shoots hoops and always carries a skateboard.  Luckily, the actors elevate the material, especially Moore whose flawed character is experiencing a crisis of desire.

Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right is a funny, heartfelt story about the importance of meaningful relationships and the “marathon” of highs and lows to make them last.

4.5 out of 5.