The Kids Are Still All Right...Hopefully

I may be sounding redundant, but I must continue on my love for The Kids Are All Right, really only because I'm starting to get a little worried.  As already stated, I'm not really interested in box office receipts because they have little if no merit in actual quality.  However, this past weekend, my beloved Kids (even better on second viewing) went nationwide, quadrupling it's theater count, becoming accessible in middle American and suburban areas, and saw its box office grow in a fairly minuscule way.  Playing on 847 theaters, it made $3.5 million with a $4,000 theater average.  It was good enough for twelfth place, even though last weekend it placed eleventh on 200 theaters.  The Twilight Saga: Eclipse on its fifth week placed above, as well as the kid-lit dud Ramona & Beezus; at the very least it bested the hideous and evil The Last Airbender.  It was thoroughly modest, and hardly the gangbusters numbers The Kids Are All Right exhibited in limited release.

This is sadness to me-- while at the same time the thinky brilliance of Inception tops the box office chart again, the summer's unsung gem goes a bit wayward.  It's difficult not to think that the films failure to surge nationally isn't due to the subject matter-- in this case gay marriage and child rearing.  I have no interest in getting into the political debate here, but merely focus on the aspect of filmmaking.  In this case, the artfulness is so strong, so loose, so funny that I'd hoped the appreciation for a fine film in an awkward summer would compensate the alleged leftist agenda, of which is nowhere in the film itself.  The joy and universal pleasures of Kids are exactly that-- how a family works, not exactly how an "nontraditional family" works.  On that note, I ask what exactly a "nontraditional family" is-- I'm aware, perhaps even in a heterosexual coupling that possibly not exactly "normal,"  enough of this discussion; back to the movie.

I ask, and beg, and beseech to moviegoers in all aspects of the country and throughout that desire a movie of substance, humor and genuine humanity to seek out The Kids Are All Right, and see it.  Even if begrudgingly-- I know movie prices are ridiculous-- seek it out.  If a curious moviegoer does, surely a delight will commence.  Even if only an appreciation for fine acting; the prickly tough love of Annette Bening, the intelligent flaky portrait by Julianne Moore, the hippish charm and sexiness of Mark Ruffalo, and the naturalistic incandescence of Mia Wasikowska (so much more comfortable here than in Alice in Wonderland.)  Or a fan of a tightly constructed screenplay (by director Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg.)  Or as a fan of finely observed comedy\drama that without any intention of changing political perspective, reconfirms that people are people with the same day-to-day problems parted into a humorous, delightful way.  Whatever the reason, I feel The Kids Are All Right should be a success, in a perfect world, it would be without question.  I'll stop my dithering advertisement.  I'd hate to think that if the film did catch Oscar recognition that it would become another example of how out of touch the Academy was with the rest of the world-- the film deserves better.