Daddy Issues

The Kids are All Right is a new film starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo.  Bening and Moore are Nic and Jules, a lesbian couple who have a teenage daughter and son fathered by an anonymous sperm donor.  When the teenage daughter, who has just turned 18, seeks out the donor father Ruffalo, the careful family life the two women have built becomes extremely unsettled.  Ruffalo, as a hippie-ish restaurateur Paul, stirs the pot both literally and figuratively when he forms relationships with the kids and Jules much to Nic's chagrin.  I liked the movie, but, while I could invest in Bening and Moore playing lesbians, I didn't really buy into them as a couple.  Their displays of intimacy seemed stunted and uncomfortable to me.  (Compare Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall in Brokeback Mountain).  Other than that I thought it was a good portrayal of modern family life (and strife),  full of love, laughter, and tears.