The Kids are All Right

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Opening in theatres this Friday from director Lisa Cholodenko and Focus Features pictures is a look into life with “The Kids Are Alright”.

This film tells the story of Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianna Moore), a gay married couple who living their busy lives raising their two children Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and Joni (Mia Wasikowska).

Nic is a busy doctor and Jules is just beginning a landscaping business and both are preparing for Joni to go off to college. That is until Laser asks Joni to help him find out who their biological father is. In one phone call lives are going to change.

Enter Paul (Mark Ruffalo), a free-spirit-vegetable-growing-wine-drinking-restaurant owner who is thrilled to know he has children. Having never been married and with no other children, Paul sees this as an opportunity to live that life.

Nic, however, isn’t thrilled at all with Paul’s presence and sees him as an interloper. Jules comes to actually like Paul, perhaps a little too much. The kids begin a relationship and see him as an addition to their family.

But, as with all things in life, you never see what’s coming from a simple phone calls as the family is disrupted and each one must examine themselves and their lives if they are to come back together.

FINAL WORD: Bening as Nic is wonderful in this role. Stripped of anything to hide behind physically, her emotions pour through. Sometimes playing a character always in control doesn’t allow real feeling to come through, Bening strips through the layers and hits solid ground.

Moore is also stunning in her role as Jules. Coming from a vulnerable place and still trying to ‘find herself’, her character does what her character is and that is to explore her surroundings. But, like Dorothy in the ‘Wizard of Oz’, she finds there is no place like home, and even better those she loves in it.

Ruffalo is charming as Paul. In this role as a laid-back never-a-care kind of guy, his character finds that life is messy. Ruffalo has the ability to be so disarming when you aren’t looking and I’ve always liked that about him. In this role he tries to borrow a ready-made life instead of dealing with his own.

The kids were exceptional in this film. Hutcherson has grown but still that recognizable kid face. From “Kicking and Screaming” to this film is an opportunity for the audience to see his work. Of course I also think his role could have been meatier as the lone male in a house of women. His relationship with Paul was not clearly defined but instead moved into the background.

Wasikowska as daughter Joni seems to take the lead in her relationship with Paul. From making the initial call to realizing that her ideal father figure is a little flawed, she plays the role nicely.

Other cast members include:YaYa DeCosta as Tanya, Lisa Eisner as Stella, Rebecca Lawrence as Brooke, Joaquin Garrido as Luis, Zosia Marnet as Sasha, and Kunal Sharma as Jai.

This film has already garnered an award at the Berlin International Film Festival and won for Best Feature Film.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give “The Kids Are All Right” three and a half tubs of popcorn out of five. The story is really well done and there isn’t a moment where the flow is interrupted. It also has some very funny moments.

It is a touching look at family, mistakes and the ability to forgive and all in the name of love.

In the end – Nic and Julie had the family of their dreams until they met the man who made it possible.