The movie this week is The Kids are All Right. This is a movie about a lesbian couple who have two teenage children. They have had a stable marriage and family until the children find the father who donated the sperm that each lesbian woman was impregnated by and he begins to insinuate himself into the family.
I was expecting a very heavy handed feminist exploration about the irrelevancy of men with insights about how the penis has gone the way of tonsils or the gallbladder: you know dangles there but you really don’t know what it’s original purpose was.
However, it was actually a refreshingly fun movie: the dialogue is pithy and very witty, sort of like watching a hipster Noel Coward play. The characters are likable and incredibly relatable: it becomes a movie about how difficult it is to stay married. There are a lot of references to the proper progressive things like buying local organic produce and composting, but most of the time it’s making fun of it: like when Annette Bening’s character Nic says, (after hearing about the merits of acai and hemp milk shakes) “we’re composting now. We are taking our garbage and separating it out so that worms can eat it and we can all feel good about ourselves: I just can’t do it.”
The best thing about the movie though is how much it points out the importance of fathers and male role models especially in the life of the lesbian couple’s son. Before he finds a connection with his father, the two mothers constantly try to impose their weird worldview of perceived male sexuality on him. When he develops a relationship with his dad. The son blossoms and learns to be a man.
The one thing I took from this movie is that it might really be nice to be a lesbian: the whole movie they were snuggling each other and watching shows they both agreed on, not having to separate out chick flicks from guy movies. The house was clean all the time, like they both chipped in with the housework. At one point, Julianne Moore’s character is tired and Annette Benning draws her a bath, gives her a foot massage and discusses her feelings. It seemed like some sort of Sapphic heaven, full of constantly made beds, done dishes and empathy. Men should keep their wives away from this move: Annette Bening plays the perfect husband.
All in all I give “The Kids are Alright” a full load of 5 Finis! It’s a great film loaded with positive conservative imagery, ideas and messages with real ridicule of the liberal worldview. It’s for older teenage kids and adults but it is a surprisingly positive family film for anyone but young kids and young teenagers due to some graphic (but very funny) sex scenes and adult subject matter.
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I haven’t seen this movie, but my initial reaction when it came out was, “Gee, another left wing movie out of Hollywood pushing their agenda.” Then I realized the premise… a gay couple struggling with sexual identity and the possibility that one might re-enter a straight relationship as the father reappears in their life and the life of the children he helped conceive. I don’t know how the story ends, but if anything, the agenda was subverted. The classic agenda pushing story in Hollywood would be having a straight couple with a sexual identity crisis, not the other way around. I’m just sayin’.
And for the record (and before anyone wants to declare me anti-gay), I could care less who is gay, straight, bi, a tranny, etc… I really don’t care who people do what with behind closed doors. What I really don’t want is to know who everyone is sleeping with behind closed doors. Keep your private life private. And what irks me the most are legislators out there that feel they have an obligation to push their sexuality into areas of the public where it doesn’t have any business… especially in the schools. Oh, that an respect the amendments of the state Constitution… even if you disagree with it.
Anyway, welcome to the club. Good job. Look forward to future articles.
This was a great film that showed one simple thing…. gay & lesbian couples love each other – they go through the same things that heterosexual couples go through – they have the same hopes and dreams for their children – gays and lesbians often side with the left because they feel alienated by some of the venom from the far right – the vast, vast majority of gay and lesbian Americans love this country – they want to serve in the military, have healthy relationships and be happy. (Oh, and they want to make money and are great capitalists) This film was a demonstration of a basic human tenant – love. Great film.
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