AppsScraps Movie Reviews

Feb 19, 2011

The Kids Are Alright

Release date: 25 January 2010 (Sundance Film Festival)

Lisa Cholodenko directs a film she wrote - and a very good original screenplay at that - which follows the arrival of a surrogate father into the lives of two lesbians and their two children. Annette Benning stars as Nic, the successful physician and 'father' of the family. Julianne Moore is her partner, Jules, a woman still trying to find herself and her lot in life. When their teenage children - Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and brother Laser (Josh Hutcherson) - decide to meet their sperm-donating father Paul (Mark Ruffalo) it sets off all sorts of doubts and drama that challenges the family's dynamic. The film is refreshing in that it portrays two not unusual occurrences in life within the (to some) unique context of a gay couple with kids. Filmed with good humour, it all ends predictably enough - poor Paul aside - and Benning steals the show.

My rating 8 out of 10.

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