For those of you keeping track at home, this is our third piece on Lisa Cholodenko’s indie comedy this week, after a solo interview with the filmmaker and a glowing review. And although it might seem like we’re performing the journalistic equivalent of sexual favors on “The Kids Are All Right” for three straight days, trust us: the pleasure is all ours. Cholodenko’s film is a solid, character-driven comedy that doesn’t rely on wacky situations or bodily functions for its humor; instead it earns our laughs by what we know of its entirely human characters. We joined roundtable interviews with the film’s cast, Cholodenko, and her co-writer Stuart Blumberg, and the discussion unsurprisingly focused on the people at the film’s heart.
In “The Kids Are All Right,” a modern family finds itself disrupted by a new arrival. Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) have raised their two children in a loving environment, filled with enough talk of feelings to please even the most ambitious of child psychologists. When Joni (Mia Wasikowska) hits 18 and is about to leave for college, her young brother Laser (Josh Hutcherson) urges her to contact their mutual sperm donor father. When Paul (Mark Ruffalo) appears on the scene, he interrupts a family dynamic that took years to develop.
The script itself underwent several evolutions in its five-year growth period. After jettisoning a plot about a river rafting trip, director and screenwriter Cholodenko says that the film’s center changed. “We really just focused in on the characters and felt like the was the material that was going to make or break this film,” she describes the script she co-wrote with Blumberg. “I don’t know that there was an enormous amount in the plot arena that changed, but it was just getting the characters right. Probably the biggest shift was the comedy — pushing that out front and center, more than it had been in earlier passes.”
Though the screenplay gestated for years, Moore was attached from early on. “What really was compelling to me was that [Jules is] kind of caught at a moment of time where she’s so uncertain,” she says of her character. “She’s really unsure of what her next move is, and she doesn’t even understand why she feels the way she does. Here’s somebody who’s been taking care of kids for 18 years and suddenly thinks, ‘Wow, I’ve got to get it together because they’re going.’ It’s not necessarily conscious, this panic. So I liked that and I like her swipes at change. The fact that she’s not directed. It’s messy and interesting and compelling.”
Paul’s imperfections were also what drew Ruffalo to his character. “He lives his life in a really unapologetic way, he doesn’t he really try to make excuses for himself,” Ruffalo explains. “There’s something admirable about somebody like that. You might not agree with what they do, and you might think it’s terrible, but somebody who’s living life on their own terms that way, there’s something admirable.” However, it was the balance between selfishness and the desire to be loved that also played a part in the character.
“[Paul] goes into the world with a really open heart,” Ruffalo says of the contrast. “I think he accepts people on the level they’re coming to him. So there’s something basically winning about the guy. If he was a totally cork, I don’t know that we could take the journey with him, you know?”
Even Bening’s Nic — the rule-abiding doctor and unofficial alpha of the family — isn’t perfect, and that was an intentional choice by screenwriter Blumberg. “I feel like I pushed for Nic to be as problematic as possible and as nonsympathetic as possible at the beginning,” he explains. “I think that a lot of times in movies people are terrified of having a character that’s not like saving the cat in the first five minutes.” After watching the film, it’s hard to argue with the rule-breaking choice to create real, sometimes unsympathetic (but always engaging) characters.
Teenage Hutcherson grows as philosophical as his more experienced costars about his role. “Laser, like every teenager I’ve ever known including myself, is trying to figure out who he is,” he says of Laser’s behavior and motivations. “He’s going through not an identity crisis, but a point in his life where he’s trying to learn more about himself and who he is.”
The relationships on set grew predictably familial. “When I found out who was playing the different roles, my jaw hit the floor,” Hutcherson gushes. “Academy Award nominations five times — they’re all amazingly awarded actors and actresses, and besides that they’re such great people. Before I met them I was definitely
intimidated, but then I met them and they were so nice and genuine and giving as people and as actors that they make you want to be not only a better actor but a better person, too.”
Ruffalo is just as quick to praise his young costars: “They’re awesome. They’re really talented. You’re acting with them going, ‘Holy shit, these kids are really good. I wish I was that good coming out of the gate.’ And they’re lovable, they’re really easy to find things to admire and love about them.” When asked how he bonded with Hutcherson and Wasikowska, he smiles.
“Kind of in the way that Paul does, you know?” he says. “Like, ‘How you doing? What’s going on? Who you dating? What’s happening? Oh, your mom’s a real pain in the ass.'”
“The Kids Are All Right” opens today in New York and Los Angeles and expands in the coming weeks.