It’s Joni’s (Mia Wasikowska) eighteenth birthday, her parents Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) more than a little bit melancholy as the realization that their little girl is only a couple of months away from leaving them for college is finally hitting home. Little brother Laser (Josh Hutcherson) has something completely different on his mind, however, and when the first quiet moment strikes he’s quick to remind his sister about his intimate request to her now that she’s of emancipated age.

Josh Hutcherson, Julliane Moore, Annette Benning and Mia Wasikowska in The Kids are All Right © Focus Features

What is it that he wants? Laser wants to know who the sperm donor was who made their birth possible, and now that Joni is old enough to legally find out he’s eager for her to do just that. But big sis isn’t so sure this is a good idea, worried what their moms will think if they were to discover exactly what it was their two children were secretly up to. Still, Laser is persistent, and Joni would be lying if she didn’t admit to her own curiosity, so taking the bull by the horns she contacts the clinic getting the ball in motion to find out their donor’s identity.

Enter restaurateur Paul (Mark Ruffalo), a scruffy former slacker who nearing 40 who still has yet to plant some roots of his own. To his surprise he finds himself drawn to the kids, enjoying the blossoming relationship he’s starting to have with them even though none of them are entirely sure where it will ultimately lead. That uncertainty grows exponentially when Jules and Nic enter the picture, all five entering potentially chaotic waters for which the guide books needed to navigate them still haven’t been written.

I absolutely loved Sundance Film Festival favorite The Kids are All Right. Beautifully acted by all five leads and intelligently scripted by director Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon) and co-writer Stuart Blumberg (The Girl Next Door), the movie is a refreshingly honest and frank modern comedy that hits numerous emotional highs. It treats both its characters and its audience with respect, everything building with a delightful effortlessness that’s both enchanting and deeply moving.

What might be most interesting here is how the filmmakers treat the family dynamic at the film’s core. Cholodenko and Blumberg don’t make a big deal about the fact Joni and Laser’s parents are lesbians, they don’t treat it as an issue needing to be discussed and debated. Jules and Nic are instead just good, solid everyday folks, arguing over the same timeless issues revolving around raising children parents have faced for eons the world over.

No, once you get past the central sperm donor hook the big things facing the two women are as rudimentary as you can possibly get. Does she still love me after all these years? Am I sexy enough for her? What if I’m not successful? Does she believe I can handle things on my own? Did we raise our children right? Are we good parents? Those are things facing Jules and Nic, and if parents off all stripes can’t relate at least in some way then by golly they’ve got far bigger issues facing them than anything to be found here.

So some will undoubtedly take issue with a second act twist involving Jules and Paul, while a case can certainly be made that Nic isn’t entirely likeable and can come across as rude and disingenuous. Others will argue that the film asks a ton of questions and doesn’t go out of its way to answer the majority of them, leaving a ton of threads dangling by the time all is finally finished.

I cannot help but disagree with pretty much all of those complaints, and if film were director by a Woody Allen or a Robert Altman and involved a straight couple dealing with many of the same issues I doubt this argument would even be taking place. For my money Cholodenko and Blumberg get far more spot-on than they ever do off, hitting the mark repeatedly with every naturalistic twist and turn their story takes. I believed in these people, had no trouble putting my feet in their shoes, and while I didn’t always agree with their choices that didn’t mean I still didn’t understand why it was they were making them.

This is, without a doubt, Cholodenko’s best effort yet. There is a confident self-assurance at play here that just oozes right off the screen, the director’s handling of her actors and pacing of the narrative just about perfect. Everything ultimately feels totally authentic, and while I do admit to being a tiny bit annoyed about how one major character makes their third act exit as problems go that one is pretty darn minor. This film hits so many right notes I hardly even noticed when it made a sour one, Cholodenko blossoming into a major talent worthy of keeping an eye on. 

In a perfect world we’d be talking Oscar nods for the script, Moore and especially Bening. Heck, we might even be pondering one for the actual film itself (and maybe even for Wasikowska and Ruffalo as well). The Kids are All Right held me intoxicated right from the very start, and as I walked home after I couldn’t stop the beautifully deserved tears from flowing no matter how hard I tried. In this case, the kids just aren’t all right, they’re freaking fantastic.

- Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle

Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4) 

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