Nic is a doctor who is somewhat of a control freak and drinks a bit too
much. Jules is a stay at home mom, sort of a flake, occasionally trying
to have a career. Joni, their 18 year old is going away to college and
feels her parents still treat her as a child while her 15 year old
brother who is at the stage of being a teenager ashamed of his parents,
too good a kid to be 'bad' but testing the waters. They live in a 3
bedroom home in a good neighborhood and are as normal as apple pie
including, after being together for 20+ years, the parents having a mild
mid-life crisis with one committing infidelity.

We
have seen this movie, and this plot, in hundreds of movies so it could
be boring except for a few 'hooks' that make it stand out, different and
interesting.  The parents, flawed as many are, are two women who have
had their children with the same sperm donor. Nic, played by Annette Bening, had the daughter, acted by Mia Wasikowska, and Jules, Julianne Moore, had the son, Laser, Josh Hutcherson.
The siblings have a good relationship and as Laser sees other father
and son relationships his curiosity about the man who donated his sperm
to make him and his sister starts to come to the forefront. As he can't
do anything until he is 18 he asks his sister to do the research which
she agrees to as a favor to her kid brother.

The
Kids Are All Right presents a gay family as part of society and is one
of the few pictures that not only deals with sperm donors but brings him
in as a main character as played by Mark Ruffalo.
Paul is a free swinging bachelor approaching 40 who owns a restaurant
and has an organic produce farm. In many ways he is an aging hippie who
is full of himself, first puzzled then interested in the two children he
has helped, in a very spare way, of fathering.

This
film portrays a complex situation by a cast of actors who make each of
the characters real and have the same domestic problems and discord all
families have. The actors are first rate and I think the film will be
remembered comes award time.

In
some ways this film may be revolutionary in how it presents a current
family, and how they got that way, but what we are seeing on the screen
is a poster for family values. Also that theory, 'all a lesbian needs is
a good man' is put to the test but doesn't pan out. A minor
quibble--was it the director's idea to make Bening 'butch', to base the relationship on the nongay model?

The screenplay by Lisa Cholodenko. who also directed, and Stuart Blumberg,
is straight forward and shows a film about being married,
relationships, being parents and all that encompasses. It is a 'small'
film that, like many independent films, deals with subjects that major
studios won't touch. While it probably won't be a summer blockbuster it
certainly will be a summer hit.

Just a question--do audiences really find actors with that scrubby look attractive?