Breezy, thoughtful, engaging and often funny, indie film director Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon) has finally hit commercial strides with this acclaimed comedy up for the Oscar for Best Picture. It’s not an easy feat considering the film’s taboo subject, but this modern day Ordinary People (revised accordingly to the fit the profiles closer to the gay director’s heart) is one of the most persuasive and perceptive comedies in recent years, with all-round compelling performances.Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are a sophisticated, affluent lesbian couple in California; the former’s a workaholic doctor and the latter, a garden designer who’s put her career on hold to play housewife. They have two kids together: 18-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and 15-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson), each of them having given birth to one of the children, with the same anonymous donor father for both. These intrepid kids soon find out who their real dad is in the form of the hugely personable and sloppily cool Paul (Mark Ruffalo, somewhat typecast in the same roles), a successful restaurateur with a funky organic allotment, a motorbike and beautiful young women throwing themselves at him. Things get complicated when Jules starts having sex with Paul while working on his garden (the instant attraction between the couple would be implausible if they did not already have such a deep connection through the kids), adding a further strain to her already complicated 18-year-old marriage to Nic.Beyond a revelation or two expressing that counterintuitive man-on-man pornographic entertainment arouses lesbians (betcha most didn’t know that), the marriage between Nic and Jules is portrayed entirely, well, straight. Nic is all business, serious, focused and tightly wound, while Jules is cool, laidback, artistic and self-destructive—both roles played brilliantly by Bening and Moore. The former, especially, is a standout with her suppressed demeanors, while Moore is both likeable and believable as the flighty other half. Even the kids, relative newcomers Wasikowska and Hutcherson, are all right with their convincing portrayals, although it is Ruffalo who seems most at ease with the role, injecting his Paul with just enough warmth and slyness. Half of the film’s strength lies in its almost flawless performances, while the other half on Cholodenko’s deft and touching mise-en-scenes (including the film’s coda where Joni frantically searches for her parents after they drop her off at college, despite their differences) which makes The Kids are All Right just about as touching as it can get.