By: Lauren Cohen, The Campus Movie Guru (University of Miami)
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Pretty infrequently do we get a chance to experience something so honest at the movies. As wonderful as movies like Inception and Toy Story 3 are, there’s something about a movie that takes you into a real, plausible situation, with characters that are so well-defined and written that you feel like you know them already. When I saw The Kids Are All Right, I felt like an outsider being given the privilege to glimpse into this unconventional family’s life. If you haven’t heard of the film, believe me, it’s a step outside of the ordinary motion picture.
Jules and Nic (played by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, respectively) are a married lesbian couple living in Southern California with their two kids, Joni and Laser, who they took turns conceiving with the help of a sperm donor. When Joni and Laser make the decision to try and contact their biological father/sperm donor, the story (and pending chaos) is set into motion. The man behind their existence, Paul (Mark Ruffallo), quickly starts to bond with each member of the family, sans Nic, who is skeptical about his increased presence in their lives and feels like he’s trying to steal her family from her. What we get is dramedy, leaning more on the comedy side than the drama, that shows us what happens when someone who by definition is a stranger, but at the same time an invaluable asset behind the family, comes into their lives and how he affects the family’s balance, for better and for worse.
First off, I believed every second of this movie. Every facial expression, every remark felt so genuine that I couldn’t help but be drawn into the story and empathize with the characters, whether I agreed with their actions and feelings or not. This alone is a huge feat. But director Lisa Cholodenko takes it even further. Her masterful (there’s no other word for it) direction took a story that could have easily been cheapened down and regurgitated on the Lifetime Movie Network and made it both very funny and endlessly charming but also a movie of true substance. The performances weren’t just good, they were award-worthy. I’d be willing to bet my life that Annette Bening gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and she wont only deserve the nomination, she deserves to win. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an actress communicate so much with just a look, and her graceful performance alone was able to make me tear up at moments. Julianne Moore is wonderful as usual, and has the burden of playing the character with the most complicated situation in the film, and does so splendidly. Mia Wasikowska, who plays the college-bound daughter Joni (and who most will recognize as “Alice” from “Alice in Wonderland“) really impressed me as well. She is without a doubt a huge star in the making.
So if you’re looking for a little break from all the big summer blockbusters that are out at the moment, and are lucky enough to have this indie gem of a film playing near you (it’s slowly expanding to more and more theaters each week), go see The Kids Are All Right, right away!
Rating: A
