Is it Really About the Kids?

It's true, the kids are all right. Joni (Wasikowska) and Laser (Hutcherson), half siblings raised by lesbian parents, Nic (Bening) and Jules (Moore), in The Kids are All Right, are your normal, run of the mill teenagers finding who they want to be and what they love, thinking they know best, and testing boundaries.


Curiosity prompts Laser to ask a newly legal Joni to make an attempt at contacting their sperm-doner father. At first hesistant to offend their mothers, she refuses, but swayed by her brother's strong desire, she proceeds with the arrangement of a meeting on the condition they would do so without their parents knowledge. Paul (Ruffalo), a local farm and restaurant owner, awkwardly meets his children for lunch, where they learn the basics of each others lives. Joni, taken with his laidback and independent lifestyle wants to see him again, while it's clear Laser will need time before he'll invite Paul into his life. News of this meeting is accidentally spilled to Nic and Jules and in an effort to protect their children and family unit they declare that they will need to meet Paul before the children can have any further contact with him.

The very different personalities of the women surface in this meeting. The authoritarian perfectionist Nic takes the role of drill sargeant with rapid fire questions directed at Paul. She comments on his lack of education and close relationships. Jules sits back and lets the conversation go wherever it may, and when asked about her own career, struggles to give vision for her newest entrepeneurial venture in landscaping, doubting her abilities. Despite this, Paul ends up hiring her and becomes her first client, making ties with the family and continuing his relationships with them. As Paul becomes a fixture in their lives, fears of replacement surface and authority is questioned, threatening the funcionality of their family.

Really the title is deceiving. It's hardly about the kids. They are the product of two loving mothers giving their everything toward the mental, emotional, and social growth of their children. It makes the audience think, "these kids are just like any kids raised by heterosexual parents, these parents can make a family function just like any other." They have dinner at the kitchen table together where the children are encouraged to write thank you notes and are questioned about disconcerting friendships. This lays the foundation for what the film is actually about: marriage. As life happens, failures evidenced, and time becomes more and more unavailable the bonds holding a marriage together are tested. The film progresses and one's thoughts travel from "this family is just like any other" to "this marriage is faced with the same problems as any other."

Annette Bening is superb as Nic. Displaying fear, rejection, remorse, and an underappreciated love impeccably. Julianne Moore also shines as she struggles to define herself outside of her marriage, trying to find a career niche alongside a partner who has always known what she has wanted.

***.5/****