The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Two children conceived by artificial insemination bring their father into their family life.

Director:

Lisa Cholodenko

Writers:

Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg

Stars:

Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 66 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julianne Moore	...	Jules
Annette Bening	...	Nic
Mark Ruffalo	...	Paul
Mia Wasikowska	...	Joni
Josh Hutcherson	...	Laser
Yaya Alafia	...	Tanya (as Yaya Dacosta)
Kunal Sharma	...	Jai
Eddie Hassell	...	Clay
Zosia Mamet	...	Sasha
Joaquín Garrido	...	Luis
Rebecca Lawrence Levy	...	Brooke (as Rebecca Lawrence)
Lisa Eisner	...	Stella
Eric Eisner	...	Joel
Sasha Spielberg	...	Waify Girl
James MacDonald	...	Clay's Dad (as James Macdonald)

Storyline

Nic and Jules are in a long term, committed, loving but by no means perfect relationship. Nic, a physician, needs to wield what she believes is control, whereas Jules, under that control, is less self-assured. During their relationship, Jules has floundered in her "nine to five" life, sometimes trying to start a business - always unsuccessfully - or being the stay at home mom. She is currently trying to start a landscape design business. They have two teen-aged children, Joni and Laser, Nic who is Joni's biological mother, and Jules who is Laser's biological mother. Although not exact replicas, each offspring does more closely resemble his/her biological mother in temperament. Joni and Laser are also half-siblings, having the same unknown sperm donor father. Shortly after Joni's eighteenth birthday and shortly before she plans to leave the house and head off to college, Laser, only fifteen and underage to do so, pleads with her to try and contact their sperm donor father. Somewhat ...

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Plot Keywords:

sperm | sperm donor | college | biological father | sex | 

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Taglines:

Nic and Jules had the perfect family, until they met the man who made it all possible.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 July 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Los niños están bien

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£411,960 (UK) (29 October 2010)

Gross:

£1,485,900 (UK) (19 November 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Focus Features, Gilbert Films, Saint Aire Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filmed in 23 days, because the creators had rushed post-production so it would be finished in time for Sundance. Even though it was admitted after the deadline, the movie became one of the breakout hits of the festival.

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Goofs

When the family is waving goodbye to Joni at the college, Laser is clearly shown sitting on the right side of the car. In the next scene (the car trip home) he is sitting on the left side.

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Quotes

Paul: It's hard enough to open your heart in this world. Don't make it harder.

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Crazy Credits

For Wendy and Calder.

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Connections

References Pandora's Box (1929)

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Soundtracks

"A Matar En La Disco"
Written by Heath Brennan
Performed by Trespeso
Courtesy of True Music, LLC

User Reviews

Entertaining story, even when not "in" for a feel-good comedy. Moving from time to time

The theater announced this movie as a feel-good comedy, which did me hesitate a bit before buying tickets. When before the TV at home, such comedies make me cringe mostly, due to over-acted family ties and an emphasis on life events that should bind people together (but not always do). However, the synopsis of this film sounded intriguing. Also, the reviews on IMDb contradicted each other heavily. The latter decided for me.

Neither the family situation nor the line of events will match everyday's and everyone's family life. But the deviation from a standard family carries the story throughout the movie, and makes up the basic ingredients for the dramatic part. I disagree with many reviewers, who have serious problems with the logic in the story. They seem to think that there is only black and white in sexual preferences, and no gray areas in between that one could try for a shorter or longer period.

The casting is convincing, and the actors are performing very well. The composition of the story is such that there is never a dull moment, and there is always some unexpected event around the corner for our entertainment.

Three sex scenes are included in the film, and one could argue that these could have been more implicit, to make it suitable for family viewing and still drive the message home what happened and what it entails for the story. On the other hand, what is actually shown on the screen is not worse than what one can stumble upon during Internet browsing or home watching TV.

The only problem I had with the story that it has a happy ending for most of the main characters, but not all. I have pity with the ones who were left more or less empty handed. They would have deserved it if they had behaved badly in some sense, but they certainly were not.

I saw this film as part of the "Deventer humor festival 2010" (Deventer is a medium sized village in The Netherlands). I don't think it had its place there, as the movie is much more dramatic than it is hilarious. I can only assume that the festival programmer had other reasons to make it part of this event. Nevertheless I have no complaints about having seen this movie, all things considered.