I can finally post about one of the best movies I’ve seen in many, many months. I went to a preview of the Kids Are Alright a few weeks ago and it was wonderful. Smart, funny, with real and likeable characters.
My sister said she is boycotting this film because the two main characters are lesbian, as is she, and one of them has an affair with a man. This offends her because there are not a lot of movies (or any) about female couples dealing with family life. Why does the only one have to involve an affair with a man?
I can see her point, but the lesbians in the film are Annette Bening and Julianne Moore and they are fantastic. I totally believed them as a couple in a rut that has been together for years. They have two kids from one sperm donor and the sperm donor is Mark Rufallo. He’s one of my favorite actors and he’s great as a lost, man-boy who donated sperm decades earlier because “it was more fun than giving blood.”
What I loved most about this movie was how real it was. Real about marriage (it’s hard) and real about life. Their kids are growing up and Nic (Bening) and Jules (Moore) are running out of things to talk about and ways to excite each other. Then Paul (Rufallo) walks in and he’s charming and reckless and he wakes everyone up, not always in a good way.
Speaking of real, the actresses are real and a pleasure to look at. There’s not a trace of botox or plastic surgery on either woman and they are all the more beautiful for it. They are women over 45 and they look healthy, slightly wrinkled, and amazing. I would much rather see Bening, Moore, Diane Lane or Katherine Keener looking their age in a film than Meg Ryan, who is trying to look 25, but is one surgery away from looking like Joan Rivers.
I loved everything about The Kids Are All Right and I wish more movies were this good.
