Produced by: Jeff Levy-Hinte, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz, Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Philippe Hellmann.
Written by: Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg.
Distributed by: Focus Features.
Release Date: July 30th, 2010.
Budget: $4 Million.
Gross Revenue: $29, 365, 490.
Despite being about two gay women and their family, this struck me as a very conservative movie. The overall theme seems to be the importance of the family unit. As I struggle to determine what the dominant message of the film was, I’m actually pretty convinced that maybe it was to unravel some of the taboo associated with homosexuality: To show us that it doesn’t matter whether you are gay or straight, that it’s the solidity of the family unit that matters most. Of course it’s true, but I think I was expecting something edgier from The Kids Are All Right. If both the parents were straight, I think you’d be hard pressed to call it anything other than a well acted soap-opera. By making the main characters gay, it seems that Cholodenko is almost trying to convince conservative people that gay people are just as capable at raising a family as straight people. If this is the point of the movie, and I could be wrong, I think it’s sad that we still need a movie like it. I thought we all got over homophobia in the 90s.
Needless to say, The Kids Are All Right is really well made. Julianne Moore is divine as always. Although I’m not a huge Annette Benning fan, she was good in this movie. Mark Ruffalo plays the bumbling slacker really well, and all the performances captivate in the right places. When Jules (Julianne Moore) starts her affair with Paul (Mark Ruffalo), I really did feel the tension deep in my gut. You feel simultaneously sympathetic and angry at her, and you really do get the sense that these are really people, and that this is a scenario that could actually happen. There is also an admirable shot that occurs when Nic (Annette Benning) finds out about the relationship that her wife is having with Paul. The entire cast is sitting at the dinner table, and the camera focuses on Nic as the sound completely drains away. Without any dialogue, we get a sense of her heartbreak and discomfort. It’s the kind of shot that hasn’t been used in movies for a while, and I thought it made a welcome return in this flick.
You could make the point that the film also discusses the fluidity of human sexuality, something that you wouldn’t get in a traditional soap opera. Though both Nic and Jules are gay, they watch male homosexual pornography. There is a delightfully funny scene where the couple try to explain why they do so to their son. As the hippy Julianne Moore awkwardly explains:
“Well you know, sweety, human sexuality is complicated. And sometimes desire can be counter-intuitive, you know, for example women’s sexual responsiveness is internalised. Sometimes it’s exciting for us to see responsiveness externalised. Like with a...with a...penis.”
This is really nice scene that sets up Jules’ character and also introduces some more conservative audience members to the concept of a fluid sexuality. All that half-baked gender theory aside, the film is really enjoyable. As far as contemporary human relationship dramas go, it’s the best of the year. I just hope that a lot of us get over this tacky homophobia thing sooner rather than later so that we can start seeing more unique homosexual perspectives.
Three and a half stars:
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