Movie review: The Kids Are All Right

I dare say that a movie with Mark Ruffalo in it is worth watching, hehe.. It doesn't matter if he's the lead or supporting or even on a cameo, just to see him on screen is enough for me.. He's just that good, in my own opinion..

The film is about a family comprised of Jules (Julianne Moore), Nic (Annette Bening) and their kids Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson). Nic is Joni's biological mother while Jules is Laser's. Both kids had the same donor as their father.

At the start, we see that Laser seems to feel that he needs male companionship that a father can provide if he were in a normal family. And so he asks his sister Joni to contact the clinic and ask them for their father's details. I thought that was the premise of the movie, how a child in a lesbian household might try to find a father-figure and how the moms are going to cope with it.. Well, see, it didn't exactly happen that way..

Joni and Laser do end up meeting their father who turns out to be this free-spirited & charming restaurateur Paul (Mark Ruffalo). The initial meeting is awkward but then we see that in the end, it became apparent that Joni liked their father while Laser seemed to lose interest in something that he instigated.. We also see how the kids probably have felt that they have to be like their respective moms, but are really not. Joni tried to be in control like Nic but she hides a rebellious, free-spirit like Jules. Laser seems to be an average, laid-back lad but is like Nic in more ways than one..

When the moms found out that the kids have spoken with their father, they invite him over for dinner where the movie shifted from the kids to the adults. Jules and Nic have been together for so long that everything seems to have become routinary. Jules was starting to feel restless and that she's no longer Nic's priority. I think Jules would have started to have an affair at any point after that and since it was Paul who started to make her feel appreciated and wanted, the two started an affair.

While this was happening, Paul got close to both his kids and realised he's tired of his free-spirited ways. He wants to settle down and he's fallen in love with Jules. The affair is inevitably discovered and because they all needed someone to blame, the family's anger got directed to poor Paul.. I say poor because I felt that it was unfair the way he was treated in the end. I just think that Nic and the kids were too harsh, considering that he's brought about some positive influences in the family. He could have been let down gentler, is what I'm saying..

While there were solid performances by the leads, I ultimately got lost in trying to determine what the story actually is.. Was it a child in a lesbian family longing for a father? Was it about a relationship crisis that most longterm couples experience at some point in the relationship? Was it about self-discovery? Was it even about the kids? I don't know.. Maybe I'm overthinking this when I shouldn't be.. It's just that it felt that there's a lot about this dynamic that could have been developed further but was discarded.

Maybe I was too busy imagining Josh as Peeta that I got distracted and missed the story of this movie, haha.. In my defense, I watched it again and I didn't come up with anything new. Please don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie because while I was confused with the over-all story, the parts I saw had depth and it was quite heartwarming. From what I can gather, there's no need to worry about the kids because they're alright, it's the parents who have issues. :)

Til then!