The Kids Are All Right (2010)

The Kids Are Alright is about a middle-aged lesbian couple, Nic and Jules (Benning and Moore) going through a slump in their marriage. In the middle of this slump their kids, Jodi and Laser (yes, his name is Laser) (Wasikowska and Hutcherson) get in contact with the sperm donor used to conceive them, Paul (Ruffalo). Paul is a free spirit (not so much in the flower child way, more in the used to smoke a lot of pot way). As a result, he either inspires or butts heads with the individual members of the family. However, despite being the catalyst for most of the film's events, the movie is hardly about Paul at all.

Liked:
-Benning and Moore do an amazing job of looking and acting like two people who, despite loving each other very much, have lost that spark in their marriage and are worn down from being in the rut for so long.
-Annette Benning's dominant and opinionated Nic steals every scene, even if I was thinking how annoying it would be to be around her at the same time.
-Two lesbians being concerned that their son might be experimenting with another guy and wanting to have "the talk" with him. Gold.
-Mark Ruffalo started off slow to me (Just Like Heaven, 13 Going on 30), but he's had about 5 or 6 years of mostly solid role choices. Good for him.
-"I need your observations like I need a dick in my ass" may top "Fuck me, your majesty" as the best Annette Benning line. And the best line period.
-Inevitably every guy has gotten the question "Would you be pissed if you were dating a girl and she cheated on you with another girl?". Well, I now theoretically have the answer for the opposite of that.
-The ending. The more I thought about it, the more solid I realized it was.
-MGMT during the credits.

Disliked:
-For the most part, Josh Hutcherson just hangs around.. Not to say that I'm expecting big things from him, but I can imagine "react" being written as his stage direction on the script for most scenes.

To sum it up (in 20 words or less):
I'd hate to use "heartwarming," but TKAAR is just that. Probably even better after a decade of marriage too.

***1/2