The Kids are All Right is, well, I'm sure you can finish the pun. While the three leads were compelling, the story left much to be desired. The parallels between gay and straight marriage were interesting, but not fully persuasive. The internal dynamics seemed reasonably accurate, though they could have delved further into the family's external relationships. When they did touch on them, it felt a touch disingenuous. Though better than the average family drama, it failed to live up to the hype.
Maybe it's better to think of it as two separate movies. One is a character study of a same sex couple. The other, a tale of a sperm donor and his prodige. The first part was done fairly well. Julianne Moore and Annette Bening were both excellent. The second part, somewhat less so. Mark Ruffalo is an excellent actor, and was well suited to the role. Mia Wasikowska put in a respectable performance, Josh Hutcherson less so. As vignettes, they would have worked out very well. Combined, and added to some rather silly auxilliary plotlines, much of their force was lost. I hoped for a realistic portrait of a same sex headed couple in contemporary America. Instead, Lisa Cholodenko seems to have been primarily concerned with challenging stereotypes held by people who would never think to watch the movie. It felt self congratulatory, rather than honest.
