The Kids are All Right

Did you spend all day installing new carpet padding and shuffling 15 years worth of a family's accumulations onto wood flooring from carpeting so that everything is ready for the carpet to be cleaned tomorrow? Do you need a night to just veg, order in, and watch a fun, but not mindless, movie? Check out The Kids are All Right. (I'm assuming I'm the only one who moved around boxes, baskets, and bins of Stuff all day today in preparation for carpet cleaning, but perhaps you had a long/productive/tiring day as well. Congrats! Now lounge around and watch a movie with me.)

I guess I would call this movie a dramedy...real life humor, real life problems, sort of. Nic and Jules are just your two average lesbian moms. Joni is their freshly-graduated from high school straight-A student, excited for one last summer before college. Laser, their 15-yr old son, wants to know who his biological father is, so Joni (now 18) makes the call & finds Paul.

Opinions on Paul range from intrigued (Joni) to indifferent (Nic) to insecure (Laser) to infatuated (Jules). In one day Paul plays pick up basketball with Laser, treats Joni and friend to a gourmet dinner at his restaurant, sleeps with Jules, and fights with Nic about the safety of motorcyclists. It seems that they might be able to make this modern family work out, except for the fact that Jules is gay and Nic is not all about sharing.

Okay, so the happy-ish ending seemed a bit contrived, but I think they would have gotten to that point eventually (just not in the two hours the movie gave). The acting was solid on all accounts, from the main five to supporting friends and lovers. The music was fun and there were several perfect lines. Watching The Kids Are All Right was time well spent ...not folding laundry, washing dishes, or grocery shopping...all things that still need to be done, here at home at least.