“The Kids Are All Right”

The kids are, or will be, all right. But what about their parents?

That's another story -- one that "The Kids Are All Right" recounts with rueful humor and genuine poignancy.

If you're the kind of moviegoer who prefers watching astonishing adventures and otherworldly experiences, "The Kids Are All Right" is most definitely not your cinematic cup of tea.

It's a movie about getting through the day, and the weeks and months and years, without losing heart. (Or your mind.)

Just ask the resident devoted parents of "The Kids Are All Right."

Los Angeles couple Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) have been together a long time -- so long that they sometimes wonder whether each still finds the other desirable.

Most of the time, however, they don't have time to wonder. Nic's a capable but slightly uptight gynecologist who can't seem to relax without the help of a little wine. The laid-back Jules, by contrast, is trying to get yet another home-based business going -- this time, landscape design.

But if Nic and Jules don't always share everything, including their occasionally conflicted feelings, it's only because they're preoccupied with raising their kids.

They don't worry -- much -- about 18-year-old Joni ("Alice in Wonderland's" wise, wide-eyed Mia Wasikowska ), a high achiever who's off to college in the fall. But the less-focused Laser ("Bridge to Terabithia's" gawky yet gentle Josh Hutcherson), 15, is hanging out entirely too much these days with an obnoxious skateboarder (Eddie Hassell), sparking disapproval from the "Moms," as Joni and Laser refer to their parents -- with the usual adolescent mixture of frustration and grudging affection.

If only Laser could talk things over with some sort of father figure.

But the closest thing he has to a father is his sperm donor -- and Laser isn't old enough to initiate contact with the mystery man who made his life possible, biologically speaking. Then again, Joni's 18, and because the siblings share the same biological father, she could track him down for them both.

When Joni does exactly that, the sperm donor turns out to be Paul (Mark Ruffalo), a footloose bachelor who rides a groovy motorcycle, runs a groovy restaurant (for which he grows his own organic vegetables) and leads a groovy, utterly unattached existence.

Paul's motto: "It's all good." Yet he may have to rethink that after receiving the bolt-from-the-blue revelation that he's the father of two teenagers who are quite anxious to meet him.

Thus begins a humorous -- and all-too-human -- series of misunderstandings and misadventures that shake up Nic, Jules, their kids and the freewheeling outsider who suddenly finds himself part of, yet apart from, their family circle.

As "The Kids Are All Right" explores their shifting loyalties and conflicts, writer-director Lisa Cholodenko ("High Art," "Laurel Canyon") and co-writer Stuart Blumberg ("The Girl Next Door," "Keeping the Faith") perform a deft balancing act, addressing serious themes with bright, sprightly wit.

Indeed, there are times when "The Kids Are All Right's" comedic zing approaches good old-fashioned farce. That is, until you notice the movie slowing down to examine how, and why, the characters get in their own -- and each other's -- ways. They may sometimes do good, and they almost always mean well. But the focus remains squarely on the challenges of making it through life's little minefields without having everything blow up in their faces.

Throughout, Cholodenko wisely resists the temptation to turn "The Kids Are All Right" into some sort of social statement, concentrating instead on the specifics of setting (offbeat yet upscale) and character (smart and well-meaning, but occasionally and undeniably hypocritical).

It helps that the actors playing these characters capture their nuances with the kind of ease and natural warmth that make them not only insightful but delightful.

Bening (who's having a great year, thanks not only to "The Kids Are All Right" but the recent "Mother and Child") conveys Nic's crisp efficiency -- and her yearning to escape the pressure-cooker life she's made for herself by always being the unflappable voice of reason. By contrast, Moore displays a sunnier, and funnier, side of her striking talent, giving Jules an impulsive, go-for-the-gusto spirit that's not always admirable -- but is always understandable. And Ruffalo (in a role that hearkens back to his 2000 breakthrough as an irresponsible charmer in "You Can Count on Me") capitalizes on his loose, open acting style to create an appealing, slightly appalling Peter Pan who never quite figures out that being a biological father doesn't automatically make him a real one.

It's tempting to overpraise modest, independent movies like "The Kids Are All Right" because they represent such a refreshing contrast to the summer movie season's prevailing big-bam-boom aesthetic.

The only things that blow up are people's lives. The only special effects are human beings enacting, and bringing insight, to fellow human beings.

And while there's magic on the screen, it's the everyday variety. Movies like "The Kids Are All Right" demonstrate that it can be the most elusive, and most satisfying, movie magic of all.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.