THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
4 out of 5 stars

annette bening was nominated AND won for best actress in 2011 golden globes by starring in this quasi-coming of age comedy about two teenage kids (a girl and a boy) who seek out to find their sperm donor father. she plays fiery-tongued gay mom nic, and boy…she is FIERCE! ;)



so, basically the story is this: two teenage kids by the names of joni and laser are raised by two moms, and they seek out their sperm donor father because they were conceived by artificial insemination. joni was born from nic (annette bening), a control freak and doctor, and laser was born from jules (julianne moore), a carefree sweet hippie type. the kids call up their sperm bank, and it turns out that their father is a man named paul hatfield, a local restaurant owner. (a very groovy mark ruffalo) paul is probably everything nic despises, but jules seems to like him because he’s very similar in terms of personality. the kids really like him too, and are wondering if he could become part of their family. the problem is nic feels threatened by this, and wants to limit paul’s involvement as much as possible. but the question is…is there a way to incorporate the father in a family with two moms? hmm… ;)


the storyline and the momentum of this movie just chugs along, but i can see why annette bening won a GG for her role since she’s just fab as gay mom nic! she’s controlling, a full-on type-A personality, and you can really see her vulnerability when she’s hurt by the one person she loves on earth… it’s a sweet story about how marriage works in a gay relationship (lesbian in this case), and it makes you wonder… gay marriage is nothing different from straight marriage. you still have problems because we are all human… i don’t think this was as funny as the gay couple in modern family, but still enjoyable. ;)