Seminal Issue.

A review of The Kids Are All Right.

My take on The Kids Are All Right (“TKAAR”), written by Lisa Cholodenko (Laurel Canyon, High Art) and Stuart Blumberg (The Girl Next Door, Keeping the Faith) and directed by Lisa Cholodenko, can aptly be compared to my feelings about the Obama presidency thus far: it was eagerly anticipated and highly touted, but, likely because expectations were so high, it failed to live up to the hype. While there are a fair number of elements to enjoy, appreciate and even admire, overall, the experience of seeing TKAAR, like the experience of being led by the Obama administration, isn’t all it was cracked up to be.

TKAAR tells the story of a long-married lesbian couple, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), who have two teenagers, Joni (Mia Wasikowksa) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and the disruption to the harmony of their family caused by newly-18-year-old Joni’s decision, at younger brother Laser’s urging, to seek out the sperm donor who “fathered” them. The donor, Paul (Mark Ruffalo), is more than happy to make contact with the kids and tries to establish a relationship with each member of the family, who respond with varying degrees of receptiveness. The drama plays out over the summer before Joni is to leave for college. The summer is fraught with tensions and fears over what growing up and moving on means for everyone, which are only exacerbated by the introduction of interloper Paul.

TKAAR is a smartly written, sharply directed film with rich, flawed, multi-dimensional characters. It captures the growing pains of a family wrestling with the adolescence of not only its children, but also its marriage, in a realistic and heartfelt manner. TKAAR does a particularly good job of depicting the struggle, through Joni, of a kid on the precipice of adulthood trying to differentiate herself from her family unit and overcome the anxiety wrapped up in leaving the proverbial nest. Joni’s dramatics feel a bit over-the-top at times, but then again, so do most teenage girls.

Less successful is the portrayal of the stagnation of a long-term marriage. From the first scene, Jules felt like she was another of Nic’s children (which was likely due in equal parts to the way the character was written and the way Julianne Moore chose to play the role), and given how whiny and self-indulgent they both were, it was difficult to see what made them ever work as a happy couple. There were moments during the film when I consciously wondered who I was rooting for, because none of the characters were likeable. For me, this was the central weakness of the film. I enjoy watching flawed, complex characters, but my personal preference is to have a character to get behind. For the most part, Joni was that type of character and occasionally Nic was as well, but Jules became so frustrating to watch that she was no longer funny.

There is, however, a great deal of humor in the film. TKAAR successfully uses levity to lighten the load that the heavy themes impose. And the performances are tremendous. Annette Bening is terrific as Nic; she truly inhabits her role and made me love her in the end despite her flaws. Mark Ruffalo disappears into his portrayal of Paul and made a very selfish, unlikeable character entertaining to watch. Both Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson made their teenage characters relatable, sympathetic and layered. The weakest link was Julianne Moore’s Jules, also the most difficult character to capture. Jules is a free spirit who hasn’t quite grown up and there were scenes where Ms. Moore achieved authenticity in her performance and other scenes where Jules felt more like a caricature, as though Ms. Moore was playing at her rather than playing her, which made it much more difficult to relate to Jules.

In the end, the movie for me paralleled Ms. Moore’s performance -- it was strong in parts, but just didn’t always hit its mark. I have mixed feelings about TKAAR. It’s the kind of movie that I feel like I’m supposed to love, but didn’t. What I do love is that a movie like TKAAR, an independent film with a smart script that has a point of view, is being made (especially in this summer schlockfest we are in the midst of). TKAAR is certainly far more worthy of viewing than at least 90% of what’s at the box office right now. The higher my expectations for a film, the higher my standards are. So I encourage you to check it out TKAAR and other indie films for yourself. Because just like with the Obama administration, there’s always hope that the next thing will fulfill, or even exceed, our expectations.