The Kids Are All Right

Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Writers: Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
Starring: Annette Benning, Julianne Moore
Release Date: July 9, 2010
Length: 1 hour 44 minutes

The Kids Are All Right is a humorous look at a midlife crisis in a modern family. Nic (Annette Benning) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are a lesbian couple with two teenagers, Joni (Mia Wasikowska), who is 18 years old and Lazer (Josh Hutcherson), who is 15 years old. The two siblings decide together that they want to contact their mom’s sperm donor, who is their biological father before Joni heads off to college in the fall. Their donor turns out to be commitment-phobic restaurant owner Paul (Mark Ruffalo), who lives a reckless hippie lifestyle. Nic and Jules are surprised to find out their kids contacted him and even more shocked to find out that Joni and Lazer want to get to know Paul, who seems the farthest thing from a father figure. Julianne Moore and Annette Benning are two of the most brilliant actresses in Hollywood and were both perfectly cast in this film. The two work off each other so well that the relationship seems completely natural, as it should. It also helps though that their characters are written with such contrast from screenwriters Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg. These two actresses also worked well off the actors that played their kids. Australian actress, Mia Wasikowska from Alice In Wonderland, is quickly making a name for herself, starring in film after film. She was great in The Kids Are All Right, but her character was not incredibly unique to play, as the mature teenager who is being suffocated by her parents. However, not doing anything insane with that character may have added to the film’s authenticity. Josh Hutcherson is a young face we haven’t seen in a while, not since Bridge To Terabithia in 2005. I felt the same way about his character, Lazer, which I did about Wasikowska’s, but he performed excellently as well. It felt completely natural to see Mark Ruffalo in that slacker hippie kind of role, even though he has never played a character like this before. He was hilarious and gave a fantastic character performance as Paul, the family’s sperm donor. The Kids Are All Right isn’t a life changing film, but is a funny and touching story. The script is written with so much realism and real life everyday humor, that it felt so comfortable to watch. The writers did a great job of showing the audience that families with gay parents are just the same as other families. They didn’t make the movie seem like they had a whole different set of problems because they were gay. Parents will be able to relate to the two main characters because this family faces problems that all families do. This is one of the few really good movies of this disappointing summer. It’s not necessary, but try and see The Kids Are All Right.