MyRating: YYYYDirector: Lisa Cholodenko
Cast: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, Yaya DaCosta
MPAA: Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use
The peaceful family life of Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), a long term lesbian partner, is at test and stirred when their two teen children, Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (John Hutcherson) contact and meet their anonymous sperm-donor father, Paul (Mark Rufallo). Paul, who donated his sperms some years ago to both Nic and Jules to each given birth to Joni and Laser, is a successful entrepreneur but lives a Bohemian lifestyle and avoiding a committed relationship. However, when he learns to know about his biological children and their moms, Paul starts to enjoy to be in their lives and to become part of their family.
As Paul's relationship with the entire family grows, Nic, a physician and the breadwinner of the family, who used to control the life of their family, begins to feel annoyed and threatened as she thinks Paul has slowly infiltrated into her family and tried to grab her children away from her. Things are getting even shakier when Paul hires Jules, who just starts her own landscape business, to do the landscaping for his back yard. As a result, not only Paul and Jules start to become closer because of their working relationship, but also they start to attract with each other sexually. A time bomb is right on their front door and about to tear the family apart!
A moving drama comedy with a good and fresh script about a lesbian family that is being threaten by the appearance of a guy, who is happened to be the father of their children. An interesting premise, right? It was indeed an interesting film. Even though I was not feeling much 'comedy' out of the film, as it was more to the 'drama', but the film was actually presented in a light tone (not that of a heavy drama), which smartly teased us about the fact of life that may screw the already supposed to be settled family, no matter you are a normal heterosexual family, or a same sex family.
A quality performance from Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as the couples and moms (who also share some kisses in the film). Annette Bening gave her realistic acting as the 'father' figure of the family, who is also a control freak as well as a perfectionist. She has that posture and authority to be the protector and the voice of her family, and who is always suspicious to the external threats. While Julianne Moore, the stay at home mom, is more an obedient and docile 'wife', who uses more of her emotion side to see and approach things, not as 'logical' as her 'husband', Nic. Jules has more heart, but also more labile. And both Bening and Moore played their characters well. Mark Rufallo gave a decent performance as the easygoing Paul, smiled a bit too much, but that was also the legitimate of his tend to be laid back character. While the kids, Mia Wasikowska and John Hutcherson, also gave good performances to add the dynamism to the family.
Even though there is a word "KIDS" in the title, this movie is definitely not for kids, as there are some very strong sexual scenes, including the quite brave and vulgar sexual scene involving Julianne Moore. Can't stop wondering why a 50-year old and a calibre actress like Moore is still willing to do such scene. In my opinion, if the scene was reduced to a minimal vulgarity, it still will not affect the whole story.
This is a beautiful movie, even though I might say that the ending was not 100% perfect, but it was one refreshing and meaningful story to be remembered. (MJ)
