Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and Joni (Mia Wasikowska) meet donor father Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right

PHOTO BY SUZANNE TENNER

The painfully transparent, slowly-evolving hurt look on Nic's face when she realizes the two are sexually involved turns our sympathies around to the side of the mom saddled with the bad cop-disciplinarian role, the uptight one seemingly at odds with the kickback California sunshine. A recent bitter, real-life custody battle between a U.K. lesbian couple and their sperm donor hasn't sorted out quite so well. Family apparently has its limits — and its moments of forgiveness. The 1970s and '80s TV and musical clans — à la the bunches Brady, Partridge, and Osmond — may have pushed a semi-subtextual message about togetherness in the face of social and generational upheaval, but these women and their kids are still working it out as they go.