Lesbian family drama sparks bidding war at Sundance

by Death by Chocolate

I was pretty excited when I read that a fierce bidding war between distributors was sparked by lesbian flick ‘The Kids Are Alright’ following the film’s premier last week at the Sundance Film Festival.  Focus Features, the distributor behind ‘Milk’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’, eventually emerged victorious and will soon be bringing the lesbian family saga to your local cinema.  The film boasts heavyweight acting talent Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as lesbian couple Nic and Jules, who are experiencing some rather tricky parenting issues. The stellar cast, combined with out writer-director Lisa Cholodenko’s previous track record (past effort ‘High Art’ also premiered at Sundance in 1998 and went onto win the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award) had me pretty excited.  However, that was until I read a synopsis of the film.  Spolier alert – probably best to kill your browser now if you don’t want major plotlines revealed.

The film revolves around the attempts of Nic and Jules’s two children to find their biological father Paul (Mark Ruffalo), who offered up his goods some eighteen years ago as an anonymous donor.  After managing to make contact, the kids develop a successful relationship with their dad and everything appears to be going swimmingly until Nic and Jules find out.  All parties eventually agree to be civil (for the children’s sake), however relations unfortunately develop a little further than necessary or on any view appropriate when Jules and Paul find it impossible to fight their growing attraction, and end up engaging in a heated affair.

Just imagine if the kids had walked in on that one, I very much doubt they’d be ‘Alright’.  Years of therapy.

Cue me banging my head on my desk repeatedly.  Jules deciding after twenty years of Sapphic love and a happy family life with Nic that all she ever really wanted was Paul and his penis sounds about as plausible as Audrey Tautou agreeing to go on a date with me.  Add in that Paul allegedly offers the kids some respite from Nic and Jules’s ‘smothering parenting’ and I’m feeling that this may be one piece of lesbian cinematic history I will choose to avoid.

The film is described as a romantic comedy, so maybe it’ll have a happy ending (and by that I don’t mean the one where Jules rides off into the sunset with Paul and the kids leaving Nic in a stereotypical lesbian alcoholic mania).  The cast alone may convince me to give ‘The Kids Are Alright’ a shot despite my initial reaction.  I am always delighted to be proved wrong, and so if anyone hears anything about a UK release date, do get in touch.