THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko
Produced by Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray, Jordan Horowitz, Daniela Taplin Lundberg & Philippe Hellmann
Written by Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
Released by Focus Features
USA. 105 min. Rated R
With Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, Eddie Hassell & Yaya DaCosta
 

With some competition, Mark Ruffalo has the most intriguing role in The Kids Are All Right, following in the footsteps of Ally Sheedy’s needy and manipulative superstar/artist/junkie in High Art and Frances McDormand’s confident, calculating music producer in the pot-filled Laurel Canyon, co-writer/director Lisa Cholodenko’s previous films. Stirring up trouble, their provocations cause a ripple effect for their stuffy WASPy heroines—all the way into the bedroom. Here, Ruffalo co-stars as Paul, who long ago donated sperm when he was 19 and broke. He had pushed it out of his mind until Joni (named for the singer), now 18, contacts him. He fathered both her and her half-brother, Laser (Josh Hutcherson). Yup, her parents are married lesbians.

Besides serving as the plot’s lynch pin, Ruffalo’s refreshingly underwritten role stands out in a script where all the other roles are explicitly laid out. Not that Cholodenko doesn’t leave wiggle room for nuance, but the audience will get Nic and Jules’s number immediately. A doctor, Nic (Annette Bening) calls the shots in the household, withholding and dispensing approval from her children and her partner in between sips of red wine. Jules (Julianne Moore) trained as an architect, placed her ambitions on hold to raise the family, and now takes tentative steps starting a new business. Cue Nic’s worried look.

Unconventional on paper, the family’s as thoroughly (and almost insufferably) middle class as can be, living in a well-furnished home that’s just as suited for Peoria as Pasadena. Joni has won a national merit scholarship, and Laser’s a jock of all trades. Even though he snorts some coke, he, like his sister, is pretty much perfect. Meanwhile, Jules wears a uniform of T-shirt and jeans, even to an upscale restaurant—may be the only way she can blatantly stand out in the LA suburban sprawl.

Unlike the couple’s concise passive-aggressive thrust and parry, Paul’s low, fumbling delivery highlights his outsider status, especially when he meets Nic for the first time in what turns out to be a backyard barbeque interrogation.  Modestly and awkwardly endearing, his demeanor could be a good-natured ploy. In the few scenes of Paul running his restaurant, he works his charms, especially on women.

Without trying, Paul challenges Nic on many fronts. He’s much more effective in dealing with his son. Speaking simply and directly to Laser, he tells the 15-year-old he doesn’t like the way Laser’s stoner best friend talks down to him, a much more effective approach than Nic’s clinical speak—she tells her son that the friend seems “unattended.” (Both of his moms have perfected therapy-speak. It’s like eavesdropping on a private session.) And before Joni breaks free for college, he advises her that she has to make the first move in changing the controlling Nic.

Though this scruffy slacker dude becomes a fixture (welcomed or not), the family really doesn’t draw outside the lines—the film ignores the messy issues it raises, and not all of them of Paul’s making. The family only makes so much room for him, with Cholodenko stacking the cards against him from the get-go. He’s too laid-back and inarticulate to stand much of a chance against Nic’s withering judgment. Everyone forgets or ignores the fact that Paul almost always reacts to their first move, from Joni’s initial phone call to the time he spends alone with her and Laser. He’s not the villain that Nic makes him out to be. Unfortunately for him, she has to have the final word—and Joni and Laser take after her in more ways than they imagined. Though often sensitively written, the script, and the family, has at least one blind spot.

For such a small ensemble, it’s odd that, aside from the principle roles, Cholodenko has cast an uneven assortment of supporting actors, one of which, beautiful but wan, I assumed correctly was from America’s Next Top Model. But then again, Cholodenko doesn’t always write smooth emotional transitions. (As Joni, Mia Wasikowska proves she can act after serving as a set fixture in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.) However, the director realizes she has a great actress at her disposal and gives Bening her due. At the film’s turning point, she fixes the camera only on Bening in a closeup while a hundred and one different reactions cross her face. Cholodenko knows when, for greater impact, her characters should remain silent. Kent Turner
July 9, 2010