While I cannot agree with some of the critics positing that the script for The Kids Are All Right is "brilliant" I can easily state that it is a well thought out, intelligent script but with a childish resolve. It is also clear that all of the performances are superb
even going beyond my expectations from the three professionals that lead the ensemble. Julianne Moore as Jules, the fem part of the lesbian couple and Annette Bening, as Nic, the butch, are at the top of their game but Mark Ruffalo (Paul) is deserving of special recognition in this production.
In Connecticut, (at least) this good movie is not in wide release. After all, it is not only a movie for grown-ups in an era when teenage movies predominate but also at a time when most exhibitors ignore mature audiences.
The theater that I attended is in Madison, CT and is known to be a "Little" theater that runs movies for thoughtful, intelligent audiences. What I also saw, however, while watching the movie is a few elderly people walking out who are not used to seeing life portrayed as it really happens, especially in the bedroom.
As for the story, all is going well until everyone discovers that Jules has had an affair with Paul, the sperm donor and biological father of both kids who are each the birth children of each of the lesbian women. Jules sees a lot of her birth son, Laser, in Paul (no surprise since he is the boy's biological father) and is attracted to Paul as he is to her, eventually confessing that he loves her. The affair is obviously not a hormone driven adventure but a real heartfelt episode that takes place between two adults who are in their 50s.
Then and only then do we discover that the primary relationship between the two lesbians is just another possessive pairing and not a mature, transcendent love at all a love that might have been given with no expectation of a return. The characters go to pieces with anger, weeping bitterness, pouting and emotional separation. The children also pout.
As a result, Paul is "tossed under the bus" (so to speak) and labeled an "interloper" despite the fact that he is generous, kind, and loving, a decent and honest man. Could we have hoped that when Paul asked this family (that invited him in to begin with) to discuss the conflict, and could they have behaved openly and generously with him to resolve the issue? Yes! What we have instead, is a non-resolved ending where Paul goes off stage and the immediate lesbian couple and their children decide to weather it all out.
Some day, perhaps in the not too distant future someone will write a script that might reflect the idea put forth by Richard Bach some time ago "If you love something, set it free; if it returns to you it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was." The problem, perhaps even discussed by the writers of this film: How many among us would understand it and be emotionally mature enough to deal with the gift of love something that we can all actually do if we can only be generous?
In Connecticut, (at least) this good movie is not in wide release. After all, it is not only a movie for grown-ups in an era when teenage movies predominate but also at a time when most exhibitors ignore mature audiences.
The theater that I attended is in Madison, CT and is known to be a "Little" theater that runs movies for thoughtful, intelligent audiences. What I also saw, however, while watching the movie is a few elderly people walking out who are not used to seeing life portrayed as it really happens, especially in the bedroom.
As for the story, all is going well until everyone discovers that Jules has had an affair with Paul, the sperm donor and biological father of both kids who are each the birth children of each of the lesbian women. Jules sees a lot of her birth son, Laser, in Paul (no surprise since he is the boy's biological father) and is attracted to Paul as he is to her, eventually confessing that he loves her. The affair is obviously not a hormone driven adventure but a real heartfelt episode that takes place between two adults who are in their 50s.
Then and only then do we discover that the primary relationship between the two lesbians is just another possessive pairing and not a mature, transcendent love at all a love that might have been given with no expectation of a return. The characters go to pieces with anger, weeping bitterness, pouting and emotional separation. The children also pout.
As a result, Paul is "tossed under the bus" (so to speak) and labeled an "interloper" despite the fact that he is generous, kind, and loving, a decent and honest man. Could we have hoped that when Paul asked this family (that invited him in to begin with) to discuss the conflict, and could they have behaved openly and generously with him to resolve the issue? Yes! What we have instead, is a non-resolved ending where Paul goes off stage and the immediate lesbian couple and their children decide to weather it all out.
Some day, perhaps in the not too distant future someone will write a script that might reflect the idea put forth by Richard Bach some time ago "If you love something, set it free; if it returns to you it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was." The problem, perhaps even discussed by the writers of this film: How many among us would understand it and be emotionally mature enough to deal with the gift of love something that we can all actually do if we can only be generous?