This is my idea of a family comedy, even though I wouldn’t take the kids to see it. Even if the heads of the household are a female couple (Julianne Moore, Annette Bening), and even if the plot is driven by their two teens deciding to look up their sperm-donor dad (Mark Ruffalo), family is the subject. And even though director Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon) has taken advantage of the obvious comic potential of the story, the serious scenes work too. (Her cowriter, Stuart Blumberg, managed a similar balance in scripting the underrated Keeping the Faith.)
Cholodenko has dealt with issues of sexuality in her previous movies, and that (and fairly explicity displays of such) is definitely in the mix. The fondness of some lesbians for gay male porn is dealt with as a humorous curiosity, for example. But always the lens is the family dynamic. Bening, whose character in Mother and Child misses the child she gave up for adoption, plays one wearing the shoe on the other foot. She resents her turf being infringed on by a biological parent who hasn’t been around for 18 years. Her partner, Jules, has an entirely different reaction.
There are probably very few hetero couples who can empathize over feminine hygiene products, but most of the other issues that come up here are ones that can come to define any long-term relationship. The issues with the kids—the fifteen-year-old has a best friend who his moms think the wrong sort; his sister is about to leave for college—are familiar too. (The brother-sister relationship isn’t a big part of the movie, but it’s there, which is nice to see.) In other words, it’s kind of a post-gay rights film.
Ruffalo was a good choice for Paul, the male lead. His characteristic expression is a laid-back head bob that seems to add a silent “yeah, man” to everything, and he sounds that way too. Paul runs a locavore-oriented restaurant in sunny southern California, and his easygoing nature is another reason he bonds with Jules. By the end of the film, he becomes a fuller character who both pulls apart and brings together the family. Cholodenko does a nice transition from the early scenes, which are all about the awkwardness of meeting new people and of forced relationships. Things get a little heavier in the second half, but, as with the best comedy-dramas, the funniest scenes are also, frequently, the ones with the greatest emotional impact.
IMDB link
viewed 7/24/10 at Ritz East and reviewed 7/25–31/10
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