David O'ConnellThe Kids Are All Right
August 31st 2010 05:13
Lisa Cholodenko’s early films High Art (1998), and Laurel Canyon (2002) were interesting but failed ventures, admirable at least for their determinedly indie sensibilities and strength of characterisation. The Kids Are All Right marks a stratospheric leap for this talented writer-director who, in her latest, has pulled off a masterful balancing act in depicting a slightly skewed domesticity torn asunder by two teenagers' curiosity about their biological roots.
Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are a middle-aged lesbian couple with two teenage children, daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and son Laser (Josh Hutcherson). Theirs is a loving family contending with typical day-to-day 'issues'. Workaholic Nic, a dedicated doctor, has obviously had serious qualms over the years about the restless Jules who has flirted with varying vocations. Whilst a steady rock on the homefront, she seems to have aimlessly floated through life without ever dedicating herself to anything for long, and often abandoning hare-brained schemes in the process.
Nic and Jules, despite their differences, have clearly been responsible for configuring a perfectly functional home life without need for a traditional father figure, but secretly the children inquire into the donor father who anonymously provided them with life just to satisfy their curiosity. Their biological father, they find out, is Paul (Mark Ruffalo), a once-slacker who now runs his own business and lives life for the moment unaware that two of his seeds have taken hold and sprouted in the world beyond his self-satisfied days of casual sex with occasional girlfriend Tanya (Yaya DaCosta) and running his restaurant.
The family dynamic is thrown for a serious loop once Nic and Jules get wind of the kids’ secret quest to meet up with Paul. Nic in particular is peeved but willing, eventually, to consider the possibility that a face-to-face meeting will have no dire, long-reaching implications for their tight-knit family. But her misgivings about the arrangement are soon realised for everyone’s life is twisted out of shape when Paul’s appearance on the scene becomes more than fleeting, with the impression he leaves on certain family members leading to deep rifts.
The Kids Are All Right is one of the finest domestic dramas of recent years, with a caliber of writing that is all too rare, even in independent cinema. It’s painful, hilarious and, above all, truthful; there’s hardly a false note to be found in Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg’s magnificent screenplay.
Bening and Moore are brilliant actors in their own right and though they’ve both floundered in mediocre films in recent years, here Cholodenko has offered each that rare gift: a meaty, meaningful role for women beyond their thirties. And both repay her in spades by bringing brave, endearing, nuanced portrayals to the table.
There are no weak links in the remainder of the cast either with Wasikowska particularly impressive as the teenager on the cusp of adulthood who neither parent wants to see absorbed by the world at large for very different reasons. Even in lesser roles Ruffalo is an engaging actor with a perennially irresistible screen presence. This is another juicy part for him as a man torn from his blissful existence by the prospect of an instantaneous fatherhood that he embraces, surprising even himself. But will he ever be allowed to remain in the children’s lives? And what harm will he do in the interim? Paul is simultaneously a pitiful and empathetic character, Ruffalo straddling a fine line with great skill.
The astute attention to detail in Cholodenko and Blumberg’s writing is what illuminates this thoroughly entertaining drama, informing its recognisably combustible reality with compassion, and without the curse of tainted, generic sojourns into sentimentality.
The Kids Are All Right (2010) offers a multitude of keen insights into the modern family - regardless of its perceived unconventional composition - and the painfully real issues that strike at the heart of their everyday interactions. Especially resonant is the pain of separation for doting parents who resist, and on some level, fear the notion of their children ever metamorphosing into fully-fledged adult beings who must forge onwards into independent lives of their own.
The Kids Are All Right opens in Australian cinemas this Thursday, September 2.
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I can't remember too much of High Art, been many years. But I really like Laurel Canyon, probably because Kate shows so much skin.
I'd read some less than favourable reviews of this, so real curious now.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
This is just brilliant mate, not an obvious choice for the type of film you'd gravitate towards a cinema for, I admit, but it's seriously a 4.5 type film for me. Blew me away how good it was.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
How have you rated the year so far?
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I haven't given too much thought on movies of the year so far to be honest ... I usually have to check with a website that posts a list of all the movies released during the year to remind me!
Off the top of my head, here's six:
Inception
The Children (technically 2008, but it screened at this year's A Night of Horror)
The Revenant
Animal Kingdom
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
White Lightnin'
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
I'm also looking forward to Chloe, Moore definitely seems to be gravitating towards her fair share of lesbianism recently in her up coming roles. I'll probably check out Chloe before this one as I love Atom Egoyan but will see both.
speaking of Inception, i never saw any review from you for it (heres mine)
On my part I'm tempted to think up a worst of 2010 list, I even labored out reviews for Once A Gangster and 44 Inch Chest.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
True about Moore, she's one of my favourite actresses too although she was a bit grating in the otherwise excellent A Single Man. As for the lesbian experimentation on her part...............interesting !!!!!
I never did review Inception. It'd been done to death by the time I saw it (I actually sneaked in a viewing during MIFF) and just didn't have the time or inclination to write it up. I loved it though and hope to see it again very soon before it exits cinemas.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Big fan of Julianne Moore here and Mark Ruffalo is a personal fave too.
As always great review David.