“The Kids Are All Right”: Just Okay
“The Kids Are All Right,” starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, had all the markings of a “Sundance Film”: a picture that looks daring and original when shown at the Park City fest in January but loses its lustre when lit by the light of day — a theatrical release. That’s pretty much how I found it when I saw the flick the other night: this story of lesbian parents and their family’s re-connection with the sperm donor of their teenage boy and girl had an appeal that was almost entirely supplied by the actors. The script, other than constructing a novel situation or two, was almost entirely without memorable dialogue, and the sort-of moral (men are interlopers, unless they are young and controllable) that is considered sophisticated and low-key by some urban critics and moviegoers (the film had a big weekend in limited release) but a little bland and predictable by those of us who’ve seen it all before. All in all, this one isn’t worth shelling out big bucks to see in a theater; it’s a yentl.
Wrong.