The Kids Are All Right

Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) are intelligent and thoughtful siblings from an educated and well-off family.  Their parents, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), are a lesbian couple who used a sperm-donor to get pregnant.  When Laser starts getting curious about his biological father, he pleads to Joni (who is now 18 and of legal age) to make the call to the sperm bank and obtain the donor's identity.  Soon, Joni and Laser are meeting and bonding with their new dad, Paul (Mark Ruffalo).  But introducing Paul to the family dynamic and figuring out where he fits in to all of this produces some mixed results.  Written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko ("Laurel Canyon"), the story is genuinely heartfelt and original - not due so much to the fact that it depicts a non-traditional family, but more so due to the realistic portrayal of the trials and tribulations of married life.  Nic and Jules are interesting and familiar characters because they act and speak like real couples do, and when they come at a crossroads in their relationship you feel their pain and frustration.  Bening and Moore are both nakedly honest and emotional as Nic and Jules, and it is refreshing to see these two naturally beautiful actresses completely stripped of their vanity (no makeup or salon tresses here).   And then there's Ruffalo (who, it should be menioned, I can never say enough good things about).  As Paul, Ruffalo exudes more sexual and masculine energy than I thought was possible for any man to do.  Such manliness and swagger should be off-putting, but Paul is just so damn charming - with his tanned easygoingness and radiant smile - that he ends up winning you over.  "The Kids Are All Right" is an apt title for this family drama; Joni and Laser definitely seem to have it the most together when compared to their emotionally messed-up parents.  But in the end, we're left feeling hopeful that Nic, Jules, and Paul will find their way back to being all right, too.


4 out of 5 stars

Chloe

From director Atom Egoyan (“The Sweet Hereafter”) comes another lurid tale of forbidden sexual desire.  When Catherine (Julianne Moore) suspects her husband David (Liam Neeson) of cheating, she hires a beautiful escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to seduce him and report the details back to her.  Chloe does her job faithfully at first, but soon she’s doing her job a little too well.  As Chloe’s stories about David become increasingly intense, Catherine finds herself unexpectedly aroused by her husband’s infidelity.  Soon Catherine and Chloe are entrenched in their own affair and you begin to wonder what Chloe’s endgame is.  The film is beautifully shot and heavy on style, but at times it feels like one step above late-night Cinemax (a.k.a. Skinemax) and less like an art-house film.  Egoyan delivers on the hot-and-heavy, and the steamy sex scene between Moore and Seyfried lives up to the hype, but there’s not enough insight into Chloe’s ulterior motives to make this a satisfying psychological thriller.  Moore does an excellent job of bringing Catherine to life.  Catherine is an extremely lonely woman who realizes she and her husband have drifted apart but feels powerless to stop it.  Even though I disliked the character of Catherine at first (she is such a doormat that she can’t even confront her husband and ask him outright if he’s cheating, and on top of that she lets her morose teen son walk all over her), Moore portrays her with such a sadness and quiet desperation that you can’t help but end up sympathizing with her.  Seyfried does her best playing the enigmatic seductress, but we never get a feel for what Chloe is really about.  I think the mystery around Chloe may have more to do with how the character was written and less with Seyfried’s inexperience with playing a femme fatale.  Instead of being fierce, Chloe comes off as vulnerable and confused, and maybe even a little mentally unstable.  In the end, I felt like there was a missing element from this movie that was always just out of reach, and it leaves you feeling a little cold instead of hot and bothered.


3 out of 5 stars

A Single Man

Colin Firth plays George Falconer, a British college professor in 1960s Los Angeles who has just lost his partner of 16 years in a fatal car crash.  It's been 8 months since the accident and George is still reeling from his lover's death.  Matthew Goode plays George's partner, Jim, in flashbacks that show the pair in various stages of coupledom, from sitting together on the couch reading and listening to records, to how they first met.  It's these quiet moments of watching George and Jim doing the most mundane activities that couples do that are the most effective.  Firth is pitch-perfect playing George as a serious, introspective man.  We see George's pain in every glance from Firth, every slight downturn of his mouth.  Firth plays George with incredible restraint, because George himself must be restrained with his emotions; during this period gay men were still closeted, even in L.A., and it is all the more excruciating for George that he must grieve in silence.  The only person he can outwardly share his pain with is his best friend Charlotte (played by the radiant Julianne Moore), a boozy divorcée who drinks to ease the pain of being alone.  First-time director Tom Ford brings his own distinctive style to the film.  He uses an interesting technique (so subtle at first I thought I imagined it) of making the colors on the screen more vivid whenever George is talking to someone, possibly as a metaphor that the only times George is still able to feel alive are during his interactions with others.  As a very well-established fashion designer I think I expected something flashier from Ford, but instead he approached the story (for which he also co-wrote the adapted screenplay) with a delicate manner which was well-suited to the film.  Speaking of suits, Ford of course lends his designs to the wardrobe; George is always impeccably dressed and his perfectly-tailored suits are just another layer of armor to protect himself from the outside world.  George is so reserved and guarded that it is a breath of fresh air when we see him finally have an outburst of emotion, and you almost feel privileged to have caught a glimpse of insight into this single man’s life.


4 out of 5 stars