2010: The Year in Film: The Kids Are All Right Review

Here is American indie cinema at it's best - a quaint, sweet, funny picture that manages to deliver its message through the lens of believable, well-written characters that feel as authentic as the characters in any novel. Of course, pictures of this scope, that feature so prominently and intimately on the lives of a few characters depend almost entirely on the cast, so it's essential that the cast is up to the challenge. Here, the cast steps up completely, and completely inhabits the characters, making them into believable, flawed, charming people who feel so very real and you find yourself investing in and rooting for after just a short period of time.

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore feature as Nic and Jules, a lesbian married couple who are the moms for a pair of children, Joni and Laser (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) who were each conceived using the same sperm donor. The desire by Laser to meet his biological father leads to the children contacting the donor, an eclectic post-hippie named Paul (Mark Ruffalo). The relationship that develops between Paul, his biological children, and Nic and Jules touches on the complexity and fragility of the core family unit, and the universal humanity of it all. Nic and Jules are lesbians, sure, but they're parents first, and face the same issues as any family with teenagers would, just with an extra wrinkle thrown in. This wrinkle, Paul, finds himself drawn to the new family he never knew he had and never knew he wanted, and upends the lives led by Nic and Jules' family in a number of ways.

This isn't a film that seeks to preach the virtue or non-virtue of gay parenthood or tout a particular viewpoint from its soapbox - this is a film that is about people and family first, on an individual basis. The balance between comedy and drama is nearly perfectly tiptoed, with the sometimes heavy narrative never weighing down the overall feel of the picture, yet the necessary gravitas never leaves either.

Led by a number of pitch-perfect performances from Bening, Moore, and especially Ruffalo, who will probably see a Best Supporting nom for his turn as the alternative new-age Paul, this film rises far above what could have been straight from the headlines schlock and becomes a touching story about a family of individuals, who love, fight, betray, laugh and cry the same as everyone. The relationship between everyone is nuanced, believable and often touching - feeling completely authentic and yet highly entertaining - an often difficult balance to strike.

Come for the performances, stay for the funny, yet touching take on the American family, an infinitely diverse institution.

8.4/10