Amusing and heartfelt exploration of sexual identity, sexual politics and sexual reproduction.
Annette BENING and Julianne MOORE make for an affecting married couple whose mid-life crisis is exacerbated by the sexual curiosity of their two teenaged children and the difficulty they have in handling both simultaneously. Mark RUFFALO is the interloper who has an affair with one as a substitute for his own inabilities in the field of committed human relationships. The performances here are brave and subtly depict the difficulties of fidelity when surrounded by so much sexual temptation especially the temptation to blame the other partner for your own failings.
Despite the quality of the characterization, there is a lack of focus in the screenplay that veers too often into soap-opera cliché. There are too many characters and not enough screen time to explore them all and yet the film attempts an ensemble feeling it never quite pulls off – and is, in fact, very difficult to do (even with the undoubted acting talents of all involved). Characters that should be mere plot devices to reveal something about the main protagonists are given too much weight; characters that should be more fully fleshed-out become mere plot devices so that the center of the drama becomes hard to discern.
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