Splendid Acting In a Film That Works, Finally

    When Jules (Julianne Moore) stands before her family toward the end of “The Kids Are All Rightâ€� and says, simply, “Marriage is a long, hard slog,â€� you feel the full weight of those words.

   It hardly matters that her untraditional family consists of her lesbian spouse, Nic (Annette Bening), and their children, Joni (Mia Wasikowska), and Laser (Josh Hutcherson), each of whom was born to one of the women via the same sperm donor, Paul (Mark Ruffalo).

   After he is contacted by his curious offspring and enters their lives, Paul becomes the straw that stirs and almost breaks apart the family.  Each member of the family, and Paul himself, has to find his or her own way through pain and confusion to forgiveness.

   Billed as a comedy, “The Kids Are All Right,â€� directed by Lisa Cholodenko from a screenplay by her and Stuart Blumberg, is best viewed as a family drama, or at least a “dramedy.â€� It has hardly any laugh-out-loud moments and perhaps a dozen sweetly amusing ones.

   But in dealing with universal matters of love, independence, and self-awareness, “The Kidsâ€� has undeniable cumulative power, borne mostly on the strength of brilliant performances by the entire ensemble.

   Moore is the emotional center and carries the movie with the performance of a lifetime, creating a fully fleshed-out character in Jules, who is the submissive, uncertain partner in her marriage to a successful doctor.  In addition to her scintillating acting, the 50-year-old Moore gets to show off a figure that is mature and yet could belong to someone 20 years her junior.

   Right behind her is the sparkling and gritty Bening, playing the tougher role of a controlling, tightly wound success story.  It’s a part that she has explored before in movies such as “American Beauty,â€� and not always as rewardingly, but here she pulls it off convincingly.

   The talented Wasikowska (Sophie from HBO’s “In Treatmentâ€� and the title character from this year’s “Alice in Wonderlandâ€�) and Hutcherson (who has been acting since he was 10) effectively portray the confusion and disillusionment of late adolescence. 

    Ruffalo wears a goofy grin that distances his character to some degree, yet he manages to fit the part of the least self-aware member of the party.

   “The Kidsâ€� is hardly an unalloyed success.  It suffers from a tedious exposition that almost sinks the whole enterprise. 

   Also, too much is made of the couple’s lesbianism.

   But why? 

   This is 2010.

   Some of the other targets of the movie’s intended humor, such as Nic’s “Felix-ishâ€� neuroses and Jules’s touchy-feely talk, are overly broad and border on condescending.

   But once it throws off the jokes, and things start churning, “The Kidsâ€� draws you in, and ultimately leaves you with the afterglow of splendid acting, especially Moore’s.  Give that woman an Oscar already!

 

   “The Kids Are All Rightâ€� is rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language, and some teen drug and alcohol use.  It is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton.

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