Saturday, August 7, 2010

The Kids Are All Right

The film was all right. As one of the most anticipated films of the summer (for me, anyway), I have do say it did not live up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, this is a good film and well worth seeing. But it wasn't astounding in the "memorable for years" type of way. Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a lesbian couple with two teenage kids. They each carried a child, with the sperm coming from a donor. At the age of 18, the kids are allowed (and do) look up the identity of the donor and decide to meet him. Mark Ruffalo plays the donor and is quickly integrated into the kid's and mom's lives. This is a story about family and about marriage. Ruffalo does an excellent job of showing the struggle of instant fatherhood and questions about how to fit in. What is disappointing is that while the dramatic tension in both the family and the marriage is set up nicely in the mere presence of the donor dad, the writers resort to a fidelity storyline to drive the plot. Of course this fast forwards a crisis, but it seems like a cheap trick that was unnecessary given the characters and the abilities of the actors involved. Overall, a strong offering and still one of the best films I saw this summer.
4 stars (out of 5)

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