THE ART OF MARK RUFFALO

If I were a man, I'd be nervous about taking a date to see "The Kids Are All Right", a new film from Lisa Cholodenko, now in American cinemas. It wouldn't be because the film, about a married lesbian couple with two teenage children, presents a threat to family values (it doesn't), or because Annette Bening and Julianne Moore are so appealing as lesbians that female audience members may be enticed to switch sides (it doesn't work that way). I'd be nervous, rather, because Mark Ruffalo, as the couple's sperm donor, is sexy to a degree that can only be described as squirm-inducing. Few male audience members will come off well next to the actor's motorcycle-riding, wine-drinking, scruffy-faced character onscreen. He's so comfortable with himself it makes you itch.

That's the point, I think. And Cholodenko, the director behind such quietly great films as "Laurel Canyon" and "High Art", milks it. Ruffalo's character is absurdly sensual. He bites into a sun-ripe tomato, joyfully straddles his bike, unbuttons his shirt to a point just shy of vulgar and makes twinkling eye-contact with a wide array of women. His primary trait is this sexiness—he's the sperm donor, after all, with vitality for hire. His ancillary qualities of kindness and nurturing merely contribute to the character's sex appeal.

Try generating other examples of all-consuming sexiness and you'll find yourself stumped. Tom Cruise? He's the opposite of sexy. Will Smith? Too slick. Is there a female actor working today who is likewise capable of such overwhelming erotic appeal? Scarlett Johansson is too divisive by a hair. Then there's Monica Bellucci, who wears her sexuality on her bare arm. But examples are few and far between.

Ruffalo makes it all seem so natural, which has the perverse effect of making it seem like less of an achievement. This is the art of his performance.

"The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features) is in select cinemas in America

~ MOLLY YOUNG