Saturday, August 14, 2010

The Cliches are not OK

The Kids are All Right
Dir: Lisa Cholodenko, 2010


Everything you'd expect a critically acclaimed indie comedy about rich white Californians to be, and not much more.

Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are a middle-aged couple whose marriage has lost its luster. Their two kids — Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) — have decided to contact their sperm donor in an attempt to suss out a bit more of their own identities. Donor-dad Paul (Mark Ruffalo) has a successful local restaurant, but no real family to call his own, so of course his growing presence proceeds to complicate that of his spawn. It all makes for an entertaining enough, but ultimately hollow, film about the familiar struggles of self-definition, marriage and family.

The acting in The Kids are All Right is solid. Bening and Moore have great chemistry as the alpha female, wine-guzzling doctor and cool earth mother with unrealized potential. Moore and Ruffalo also have great chemistry, and sparks fly between Jules and Paul the minute she starts landscaping his untended garden. Hutcherson manages to be just the right amount of annoying as Laser dabbles in drugs and bonehead friends and Wasikowska plays perfectly the quiet, smart, insecure, fresh-faced and innocent Joni.

There are a handful of cheer-worthy moments of genuine honesty and humor. Like when Laser asks his moms why they watch gay man porn and, after an awkward beat, Jules gives an intelligent explanation of human sexuality. Or the palpable sexual tension between Joni and her sweet South Asian guy friend, as they sit on the floor in her bedroom. And little beats the straight-out-of-a-sex comedy scene where getting frisky with a toy and a flick has embarrassing results for Nic and Jules. For the most part, you really feel the love between everyone in the family, even if you don't feel any love for them.

One problem I have with The Kids are All Right is that it's one big, organic cotton t-shirt wearing, California cliche. There may not be any surfing, marijuana or tie-dye (well, maybe a little tie-dye), but there's spontaneous a cappella Joni Mitchell karaoke (which is actually a great scene and one of the few in which Bening is allowed to fully shine). There's also the token "pretty pensive girl awash in sunlight and silence in a moving car" shot, Jules's tired hippie tendencies, the endearing Latino gardener. Even Nic's rant about how she's so over composting and being green has a self-conscious, contrived feel to it.  This all makes it even harder to connect with the characters, who are all either too self-involved and self-satisfied or too immature to be immediately relatable. Their lack of true depth makes them boring and disengaging, in a movie that tries too hard to seem like it's not trying hard at all.

My other issue is that the movie is just too neat. It is too controlled, too obviously micromanaged by writer-director Cholodenko, to ever feel like it has a life of its own. I guess what I'm saying is that I could see the strings. Also, despite its ultra-cool, ultra-indie cred, the plot is formulaic and unfolds a little like that of a Full House episode: evidence of happy, alternative-but-well-adjusted family ("Cut. It. Out.") —> problem arises with one or more family members ("Oh, Mylanta!") —> irresponsible culprit hides issue from more responsible party ("How rude!") —> moment of truth ("You're in big trouble, mister!") —> tidy, but unsatisfying, resolution to problem, leaving no loose ends whatsoever ("You got it, dude!").

I say see it, but wait for the DVD.

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