Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
8/23/10
We've had this discussion
before, but since I'm sure just about no one (well, maybe my sister Tammy)
reads every review on this site, it bears repeating. The problem
with the whole film festival/platform release system that's now just about
the only way to interest adult audiences in movies with mature subject
matter is that it makes it virtually impossible to see the movies in question
except through the prism of the buzz they ride into your town. It
puts the opening weekend reviews on steroids, because they're often all
you know about movies whose trailers you usually have to seek out online,
and they remain all you know (other than whatever the box office returns
look like in those cities lucky enough to get the movie before yours) for
weeks and months on end. So, when a movie like The Kids are All
Right shows up, it feels like half the screen is blocked out as ad
space for the brilliantly funny celebration of the universality of family
we're expected to fall in line and experience. But after watching
Kids
chug along at a steady level of “not bad” for a hair under two hours, I
was left with a one-two punch to the gut: not only is that not really
the movie I was promised, but upon reflection, I don't really buy any of
what it's selling. Buoyed by some good (though not spectacular) performances
by a terrific cast and a story that's interesting enough until it gets
where it's going, The Kids are All Right sadly turns out to be another
of those movies whose primary audience waits almost exclusively at the
film festivals and major markets where a platform release takes off.
Those of us who don't know anybody who drinks hemp milk (I think I heard
that correctly...) really don't need to rain on their parade by seeing
it ourselves.
Nic (Annette Benning) and
Jules (Julianne Moore) are a married couple who used an anonymous sperm
donor to conceive two children. Joni (Mia Wasikowska) just turned
18, and her 15-year-old brother Laser (Josh Hutcherson) has convinced her
to try to contact their biological father. He turns out to be Paul
(Mark Ruffalo) who's into organic farming, casual sex and general hanging
out. Paul really takes to the idea of having a family, and Joni quickly
connects with him. Laser, whose ambivalence about male role models
is best expressed through his friendship with creepy loser Clay (Eddie
Hassell), isn't sure what to make of him. Their Moms break down along
similar lines: Nic wants nothing to do with Paul, but Jules like
him... a lot. He becomes the first client of her start-up gardening
business, and before you know it, they're sleeping together. The
introduction of Paul into their lives works the cracks in the non-traditional
family's foundation like water in bricks, and before long, no one in the
house is speaking. Can this family be saved?
I'm far from The Kids
are All Right's ideal viewer because I'm not really a fan of the notion
that mediocre marriage is a great thing. Don't get me wrong:
you find your soul mate, you marry the hell out of them. But I've
seen very little in my life (admittedly, one in which I've never been married)
that leads me to believe bonding yourself to someone you can stand... most
of the time... is a virtue. And when Kids comes advertised
as a celebration of marriage, believe me, it's not the soul mate stuff
we're talking about here. Benning and Moore haven't a drop of romantic
chemistry, and in fact Nic comes off as someone I wouldn't imagine most
people wanting to spend any time with, let alone a lifetime. We never
get a sense of what made them work as a couple before they lost their way
(the “adorable” story of how they met is a lame joke rather than a sign
of real connection), and the movie never puts them back together in any
appreciable way. And the kids really are just all right; in fact,
Laser (which I don't believe for a moment Nic would ever allow her child
to be named) seems to be at the beginning of a dark road.
What really bugged me as
the movie shook out in my head is how anti-male it is. Perhaps it's
not the movie's intention, simply a function of a certain kind of homewrecker
formula it's running, but every single male in it is presented as a ruinous
force. Near as I could tell, it took two to do the tango between
Paul and Jules, but all the blame ends up at his feet. In fact, all
the blame for all the family's issues is ultimately cast his way:
if not for that big dumb man and his big dumb, well, you know, the fact
that Nic is a controlling pill and Jules an untrustworthy sponge would
have remained happily buried until the end of time. It doesn't help
that Ruffalo gives the movie's best and most vibrant performance.
I make no excuses for his irrational desire to push Nic out of the family
photos and take her place, but at least he wants something other than the
dreary status quo. He should really take Nic's advice in his final
scene, though. Not only should he not try to make off with somebody
else's family, but this is one he really doesn't want.
I know we're supposed to
be impressed by the fact that Nic and Jules' lesbian marriage is just like
heterosexual marriages, but here's the thing: since I'm not homophobic,
I already knew that was the case. And I seriously doubt this grumpy
tribute to the joy of being with someone long enough to get on their every
last nerve is going to do much to change the worldview of any bigots who
get stuck watching it on an airplane. Which leaves us with a dreary
story about a dreary family. Hey, kids, let's have a film festival! |
