The Kids are All Right

What's the difference between a traditional family, and a family with homosexual parents? Not as much as you'd think, at least according to Lisa Cholodenko's “The Kids are All Right.” The family in this movie parented by lesbian partners Nic (Annette Bening), and Jules (Julianne Moore) seem to have many of the same problems as traditional parents. Their children seem to be normal children: 18 year old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) is about to move out of the house and into college dorms, and 15 year old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) has to deal with both his fluctuating identity and who he really wants as his friend.

Joni and Laser are half-siblings, they both have the same sperm donor. Nic had Joni, and Jules had Laser. I don't know whether or not they told their children which of them had which child, though it's pretty obvious and it comes up here and there. The parents, Nic and Jules are very different it would seem. Nic is a perfectionist doctor who, like many people, desire control in her relationships. Jules is much more of a free spirit. Always trying to start up a new business (this time it's a landscaping venture), and seemingly always never really finishing it, Jules often gets under Nic's skin. This is the most basic and underlying marital squabble in the movie and it's rather cliché, but we have to set up the family is imperfect somehow right?

The issues really start to flare up when Laser convinces Joni to contact their biological father because he can't and she's old enough to do it. She obliges and they meet Paul (Mark Ruffalo). Paul made his donation when he was 19, he's now at least (does math in head... 19 + 18=) 37, a little too old to still be finding himself, though it seems that's exactly what he's doing. From the beginning Joni is obviously much more interested in Paul, for some reason Laser keeps him at a distance (is he trying to protect his sister? His mothers? Himself?) After an awkward scene where Jules and Nic walk in on Laser and his friend watching their (the mother's) male gay pornography (weird? Idk), Jules and Nic sit Laser down and have a talk. Thinking they know about Paul, he admits to his and Joni's meeting with their father, Jules and Nic just thought (hoped?) he may have been gay.

The rest is rather typical, and only interesting because it includes the different aspect of having a same sex couple at the head of the family. Paul is the endlessly friendly and amicable guy who just happens to end up having an affair with Jules. Nic eventually finds out (as they always seem to do), and there is a falling out. Paul tries to convince Jules to run away with him with the kids and Jules flatly refuses, she still loves Nic. The movie ends with the family coming together (without Paul) and sending Joni off to college. We see at the end that of course there is still hope for Nic and Jules. It wasn't all so bad.

I had a problem with this movie. I don't have a problem with the aspect of homosexuality, other than apart from it, this movie would have been just another domestic romance and nobody would really be talking about. No, my problem with it is that none of it seems real. We don't see why Nic loves Jules, or why Jules loves Nic. They're obviously attracted to each other, but we don't really ever see their personalities working together. Perhaps the director simply wanted the audience to assume that aspect. Would I have assumed it had it been a heterosexual couple? Probably not. Also, the whole thing seems to be under a time crunch. Everything has to be resolved by the time they drop Joni off at college. Yeah, that'd be nice, but I can't believe that it works like that in real life.

The homosexual aspect of the story does elicit some interesting questions, though the movie never seems to want to answer them. Are we supposed to? I guess so, though I don't really want to know about the psychology that drives a lesbian to passionately desire the man who donated the sperm that fathered her child. I'm sure somebody does though.

The acting is OK, nothing special. It's not the acting that will draw you into the movie, it's the story, and the story is better than the acting though not good enough to merit the praise it's getting.

5/10