Monday, January 31, 2011

The Kids Are All Right

The Kids Are All Right (directed by Lisa Cholodenko) is a light family drama that trades heavily on the novelty that the main characters are a married lesbian couple living an upper-middle class life. The story doesn't rise above the level of a television sitcom, although some of the romantic comedy was deemed overt enough to garner an “R” rating. The actors are fine and portray pleasing characters. Certainly we need positive examples of lesbian couples in American films, although it’s embarrassing that this has to be said at all.

The story never went anywhere new or particularly interesting, and instead it relies almost entirely on the appealing nature of the characters. That’s not enough.

There was another family drama released in 2010, Please Give (directed by Nicole Holofcener), that was more involving, went unexpected places, and gave viewers more to think about.  The Academy would have done well to nominate Please Give instead of The Kids Are All Right.

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