#LFF The Kids Are Alright

This is a nice film. After the tensions of Brighton Rock, the emotion of Blue Valentine and the sheer Colin Firthness of The King's Speech it made a lovely contrast and great end to my first London Film Festival.

It's a comedy about a lesbian couple who've got two teenage kids, conceived using the same sperm donor.

Nic (Annette Bening) is a doctor, the bread winner and a bit of a control freak while Jules (Julianne Moore) bumbles from one business idea to the next now that the kids don't need a stay-at-home mum but they compliment each other and their partnership is strong.

That is of course until the apple cart is upset. Fifteen-year-old son Laser (Josh Hutcherson) wants to meet his biological father but is too young to arrange it. Sister Joni (Mia Waskowska) is eighteen and persuaded to make the call for him, her own curiousity sparked.

And so donor dad Paul (Mark Ruffalo) comes into their lives. He's a laid back restaurant owner who grows his own vegetables and rides a motorbike. He proves a hit with daughter Joni and soon wins over Laser too. Nic hates the interloper into her happy family and the influence he has over her children but tolerates him for their sake.

And Jules, well, Paul's arrival brings to a head some hidden tensions in her and Nic's relationship.

Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko has turned out a witty and intelligent script and together with a group of great actors made it into a warm and entertaining film. Some might not like the middle class niceness of it all but my only slight gripe is how things turn out for Paul.

It's a fun, frothy but very charming and puts a smile on your face but ultimately not one that is going to stay with you long after you've seen it. And that is OK.

I'd give it three and three quarter stars out of five.

Metacritic gives it a rating of 86% and Rotten Tomatoes gives it a rating of 96% (it's not quite that good)