Best Picture Nominees 2011

The Kids Are All Right
A lesbian couple, their teenage kids and the sperm donor whose appearance skews the domestic geometry: Kids could have been a wacky mainstream comedy. Instead it's a muted comedy-drama with an indie pedigree. Annette Bening, as one of the moms, and Mark Ruffalo, as the hunky donor, won Oscar nods, as did the script by Stuart Blumberg and director Lisa Cholodenko. Only Bening has a distant shot at an Oscar; this middling view of a postnuclear family is just too wee and too wan for either gravitas or glory.

• Oscars 2011: Who Will Win and Who Got Snubbed