The Kids Are All Right Movie Review

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Rent The Kids Are All Right on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
Directed by: Lisa Cholodenko
Starring: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A family is upended when the two children seek out their biological father.

Verdict
The writing is really smart, blending drama and comedy. Each character feels real and has an arc. The family dynamic felt so realistic, I guessed it had to be based on real experiences. It is, in part. This is a movie about family, parenting, and complacency. It can be complicated, heartbreaking, and comical.
Watch it.

Review
This is based on director/writer Lisa Cholodenko's life experiences with her partner. It shows in how the family interactions have a very genuine feel.
The family consists of a same sex couple Jules & Nic (Julianne Moore & Annette Bening) and their two children. The children were a product of Paul's (Mark Ruffalo) anonymous sperm donation. Now that the oldest child, Joni is eighteen, her brother Laser urges her to contact their biological father. Paul consents to meet.

The writing is smart. The children wanted to hide the meeting to avoid an overreaction from their parents. The moms just want to meet him, but privately they voice their feelings of indignation, inadequacy, and not wanting to share the kids with someone new. They are concerned he will unduly influence the kids. At the core, this is a movie about parenting. What happens when life is upended?

The Kids Are All Right - Smart family drama/comedy.

Nic's loss of balance and place causes her to lash out. Jules feels unloved and finds in Paul the opposite of Nic. A free spirit who appreciates her. The family dynamic turns complicated when Paul and Jules begin an affair. There's no way for it to end well.
The affair perpetuates since Jules is designing a new landscape for Paul's yard. Jules has started a landscape design company and her helper, though he has very few lines, is hilarious.

The sequence of Nic realizing the affair was very good. There were no words, just acting. The way it keys in on Nic and how everything else fades out accentuated the scene well, though the framing of many scenes felt off. It's not something I usually notice, but the shots should have been framed differently. Maybe it's a budget issue. I don't know if it was the backgrounds, or the head shots being too close, but it looked too simplistic.
It could be stylistic, close shots showing the warts and all of this family, an uncomfortably close look into their personal lives.

I really like the ending. The way Paul's transgression is resolved is different from what I expected. It doesn't resolve Paul, it never goes back to him. This movie was always about what happened to this family. Paul was a storm that swept in and then passed. The family keeps going. It's a distinctly non-Hollywood ending which I like.

Nic and Jules realize they want to stay together. Even the children realize their friends aren't that great. Joni tells her friend how annoying and needy she is. Laser realizes his friend is a jerk and just cruel. All of the characters have to break the cycle of just going with the flow and coasting.

There is a lot of talent in this movie. Ewan McGregor was originally cast as Paul, but I'm glad Ruffalo got the part. Ruffalo seems like a different person in every movie. It's fun to watch him as a free spirit, motorcycle riding, restaurant owner.
Bening and Moore form a great couple. How they nip and nag each other is subtle, but really sells their relationship.