---The movie "The Kids Are All Right" (The Kids Are All Right)
has many strange things in the United States. For example, it is illegal for a 19-year-old man to drink alcohol, but it is okay to donate sperm. Paul studied International Relations at the university when he was 19 years old. He took advantage of his youth and strength to make contributions to sperm banking. Nearly 20 years later, Paul received a call from the sperm bank saying that his child wanted to get in touch with him. According to the confidentiality agreement, if the donor is unwilling, the bank has no right to disclose his identity, but Paul is willing. The story of the comedy movie "The Kids Are All Right" (The Kids Are All Right) unfolded.
Paul was willing to meet the children mainly out of curiosity. He found that his donation that year had yielded two fruitful results: Jonnie and younger brother Lesser, who had just graduated from high school. For these two children, in addition to being driven by curiosity, the stronger need is to find a father. The two children grew up in a fatherless environment. They didn't even have an adoptive father or stepfather. They only had a mother. Not only one, there are two at the same time. Gay couples Nicole and Jules each gave birth to the siblings of Jonnie and Lesser after artificial insemination. The four together form a family. Since the sperm are all from Paul, Jonnie and Lesser are biologically half-parents. Is this family special? If you expect to see a movie about how gay families are different from regular families, then one of the heroines, Nicole, will be very angry. The ultimate goal of her struggle is to show the world that, in fact, everything is business as usual for gay families. The core of this movie's comedy effect is here.
The family established by lesbians does not have the conventional structure of a husband and wife, but there are also yin and yang points. Nicole is a gynecologist. She earns food for the whole family. The four people can live in a good, tree-lined community in Southern California, and use high-end cars such as Volvo V70s just like other higher-income middle-class people. Jules has studied architecture, but her energy is more on taking care of children, and her career is more casual. After changing the trajectory many times, her latest plan is to devote herself to gardening. Two knowledgeable and educated mothers take their respective responsibilities and take good care of the family. The two children grow up naturally and healthily. Daughter Joni has excellent schoolwork, and every university she applied to has issued her admission notice. The family abides by laws and regulations, eats nutritiously and healthy, and all garbage is sorted and recycled. Everything is the same as other decent traditional families, except that there is no father in the traditional sense.
After Paul appeared, the original stable life of the family immediately changed accordingly, sliding towards the direction of losing balance. First, the little bit of wildness hidden in the two children was awakened. Jonnie started to contradict Nicole, who likes to nag. She emphasized that she was an adult and she didn't need to listen to her parents. Lesse used to like to follow a bad boy as a little brother, but now he dares to openly challenge him. The most surprising change happened to Jules, who actually fell on the same bed as Paul. I am not sure which situation is more serious, lesbian cheating with a man or cheating with another woman? But there is no doubt that cheating with men should raise more questions. Not only are infidelity to their partners, but there are also deeper questions: Has her sexual orientation drifted?
Female director Lisa Cholodenko is gay herself, and she and her companion's children are also obtained through artificial insemination. In an interview with The New York Times, Cholodenko talked about the derailment plot, but did not deliberately emphasize the difference between derailment with men or derailment with women. She said that as long as there is a sexual relationship, even if it crosses the boundary, the reason should be attributed to the person's desire, Jules desire to change the increasingly dull life. Gay families also need to face the midlife crisis. After years of getting along between partners, maintaining passion has become a luxury. There is a detail in the movie. When Jules and Nicole were in a quasi-romantic state by the bathtub, the phone rang suddenly and Nicole's patient needed urgent consultation. After the diagnosis was over, not only the water in the bathtub had cooled, but Jules' body heat had also subsided.
Cholodenko relies on the meticulous portrayal of lesbian families to create a comic effect, without resorting to exaggerated plots, or pretending to be silly, let alone ridiculing disadvantaged groups. For example, when Jules and Nicole have sex, they need pornographic movies about gay men to add to the fun, which is very interesting. What's more interesting is that his son Laise found the video tape in their bedroom. He questioned the two mothers. Why are you guys? Jules answered very seriously. She said that human sexual behavior is more complicated. In many cases, human desires are just the opposite of intuition. The more serious the attitude she explained, the stronger the comedy effect. All the audience in the cinema laughed wildly.
It is difficult for American actresses to find suitable roles after they are 40 years old. This film is a rare exception. It provides an excellent stage for the two actors Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. Julianne Moore's image is no longer as mature and young as it used to be in Boogie Nights, The Hours, and Far From Heaven, but every time she appears on the screen, she is still radiant. Annette Bening's performance is equally outstanding. Nicole's very serious and cautious attitude towards life successfully strengthened the comedy effect of the film in a calm manner. The director is also very generous to the other three characters. There are no weak characters in this movie.
Many times, I am accustomed to viewing movies from the perspective of a storyteller, so that I can not only absorb nutrients from the film narrative, but also find fun by picking faults. Judging from the plot design, the movie is basically smooth, with only two exceptions. In order to give Paul and Jules a chance to get in touch with each other, the director asked him to invite each other to renovate his overgrown back garden. Previously, Paul's profession has been shown in the movie. He is a tasteful restaurant owner and is passionate about organic farming. A person who grows vegetables and fruits everywhere leaves his backyard idle. This arrangement is more reluctant. Another exception occurs when the story turns in a big turn. Nicole found the woman's hair in the bathroom of Paul's house, and she immediately realized the truth of the matter: he and Jules had an affair. I wonder, why can't the hair come from other women? Is it Jules? My understanding of a unique interest in American society soon came in handy, Julianne Moore with natural red hair. Among whites, red hair is relatively rare, and it is the result of genetic mutations during human evolution. The vast majority of red-haired women are of Irish descent, and they are the favorites of the male petty bourgeoisie in American society.
Most of the excellent movies on the subject of homosexuality that I have seen before are tragedies, at least very tragic, like My Own Private Idaho, Far From Heaven, Milk, and of course, Brokeback Mountain, and the recent A Single Man. Comparison of high-quality comedies. Rare. This film by Lisa Cholodenko helps to balance people's understanding of the encounters of homosexuals in American society. After all, only from statistical data, there are always 10% of homosexuals in our lives. They have the same freedom of love, marriage, and childbearing as they have traditional sexual orientations. Homosexual families should also be recognized by the law. protect. The integration of homosexuality into the mainstream of the United States has been unstoppable, but the speed is hard to say. .
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