Agenda Movie Club: The Kids Are All Right

The Kids Are All Right

Lisa Cholodenko

2010

It’s been said that there are really only two stories: “Boy goes on a journey” and “a stranger comes to town.” I think this is both.

I also think both stories go both ways here. We have Mark Ruffalo, being uber-manly Mark Ruffalo, coming into the lives of the family and changing them, but also going on his own journey and being changed. We have the family, contacting Ruffalo after so many years (stranger comes to town) but also going on their own journeys of discovery (it doesn’t have to be a “boy” that does this) and resolving their conflicts. So there it is.

I really liked this movie, though I didn’t looove it. It’s terribly entertaining, and the dialogue is delightful and I like how it plays with convention. Like: The lesbian couple having the same conflicts that typical heterosexual couples have in movies, but with each of the women playing off female stereotypes from those same movies. What I mean is, it’s not like one of them is playing the stereotypical “male” role while the other is the female, except they’re both lesbians. I mean they both play different aspects of the “married woman” stereotype. Nic is cutting with her words (the “sniping” wife), Jules feels unappreciated and has an affair.

Not that I’m saying the women are complete stereotypes, but that these are both often seen in married female movie characters. Just thought it was interesting.

Mark Ruffalo is, I guess, pretty self-absorbed (certainly everyone else seems to think so), but it just seems like it’s because he hasn’t really had to be anything else. He sort of just floats along with his sensitive sexuality and seems to live a life of leisure. I just get the idea that he simply hasn’t had to worry about anyone else for most of his life. Because he almost seems kind of surprised when everything falls apart after he sleeps with Jules. Not because he didn’t expect that kind of reaction, but because it seems like he didn’t really even consider that there was something that might happen after. (He tells Jules that he thinks he’s falling for her, but I’m not really even sure how true that is so much as something that he thinks maybe is supposed to happen. Maybe I’m wrong.)

I like how Ruffalo’s character opens up a lot of parts of the family that maybe they didn’t know were there, all the while exposing problems that they didn’t realize were there, either.

This movie also makes me glad I don’t own any teenagers right now.

Excellent acting, not a surprise.