The Oranges (2012)

This movie has a great cast, and the script is up to the caliber of the people who act in it--Hugh Laurie (David), Catherine Keener (Paige), Oliver Platt (Terry), and Allison Janney (Cathy) are all very good in this comedic drama about the intertwined lives of two families. 

These two families have been very close for over 20 years.  They live across the street from each other, the men jog together regularly, and their kids were friends as well, at least up until high school, when the girls from each family had a bit of a falling out (the one who never forgave the other is the narrator of the story) and the boy had a crush on the girl, which didn't go that well either.  But no matter, because kids grow up and move away, to college and beyond, and the parents remained inseperable.

Except this being the 21st century, once moved away is not all moved away--first Vanessa (David and Paige's daughter) comes home to live.  She gets a job, but other than that she just slides into her parents' social life, never bothering to get one of her own.  She also doesn't notice that her parents are miserable and distant with each other--she is unmotivated to move forward with her life, she doesn't rock any boats in her house, and she doesn't want to hear that she is stuck in a major way.

Terry and Cathy's daughter (who plays the bad girl opposite Vanessa's good if boring girl role) Nina comes flouncing home after a love affair gone wrong.  David makes one false move--he kisses Nina--the daughterof his best friend and someone he has known all her life--and she kisses him back, and the tranquil lives of all involved get upset.

Now I have known many people who left their wives for people their daughters went to high school with.  There is no new ground there.  What is interesting in this is two-fold.  First of all both David and Nina agree that the affair (which is discovered before it even begins because Nina's mother really cannot leave any thing to chance, she absolutely must control it) is completely inappropriate.  They are just going forward with it anyway, because they were unhappy and this makes them happy and what is life about, afterall, if not seeking contentment.  So the drama is not so much about that as it is about how everybody changes as a result of their affair.  That it wasn't jsut Vanessa who was stuvk, it was almost everyone, and it took a big shocking thing to get them all to see that they all neede some change.  Very enjoyable.