After spending most of the spring holed up with work in Western Mass. or on the road as part of a musical sideline, I finally took the time a few weeks back to put everything on hold for a bit, step away from the computer, and head south to Rhode Island to visit family.

My father and I sat on the porch looking out over the Sakonnet River and finished our beers while the dogs explored the new aromas of the beach, and whatever work I’d left behind was long forgotten. There’s a certain magic that happens when families get together—this week, three films explore the ties that bind in all their ups and downs.

At Amherst Cinema, director writer/director Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon) tells the story of a modern family in The Kids Are All Right. Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as Nic and Jules, a married lesbian couple whose suburban lifestyle—a cozy California home bursting with the energy of their two teenagers born of artificial insemination—is shaken up when son Laser presses his 18-year-old sister Joni to help him track down their biological father.

The fact that “bio-dad” Paul is played by Mark Ruffalo will say much to filmgoers familiar with the actor’s work in films like You Can Count on Me and We Don’t Live Here Anymore. Boyishly handsome, charming, Ruffalo’s natural niche is that of lovable rogue; here his character is a free-and-easy restaurateur whose bachelor lifestyle proves intoxicating to Joni and Laser, and perhaps even more so to Jules, adrift in a midlife career limbo. In the midst of the resulting entanglements, the five try to reassess their idea of what makes a family.

Also at Amherst is I Am Love, a tale of unexpected passion in Milan. The magnetic Tilda Swinton stars as Emma, a Russian immigrant who has married into a wealthy Italian dynasty and thrown herself into the local culture. Her husband is Tancredi, whose father, Eduardo Sr., shocks the family early on by splitting control of his industrial company between son Tancredi and grandson “Edo,” who would rather open a ristorante with his friend Antonio, a chef. Emma, normally the rock at the family’s center, is electrified by the young chef and pursues an affair that will leave the clan forever altered.

But if those films are about the snarled history of families, Babies is about their earliest days. Thomas Balmes’ film is a documentary look at four infants from all over the globe: Ponijao, who lives in Namibia; Bayarjargal in Mongolia; Mari, an infant resident of Tokyo; and Hattie, of San Francisco. As he follows them from birth to first steps, the wonder of what it means to be human is laid plain. The film made a pass through the Valley earlier this season, but it returns for a series of special screenings at the Academy of Music in Northampton this Friday through Sunday.

Tickets and schedule information can be found at babytix.com, but sponsor Brian Foote notes that children under eight are free, and that the Sunday matinee will be a baby-friendly show so new parents can enjoy the film.

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Also this week: Two other special shows come to Amherst this week. First to arrive is To Catch a Thief, the lighthearted cat-burglar story starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly trading barbs on the Riviera. One of Hitchcock’s less intense mysteries, it sparkles still—although watching Kelly race her car along the same roads where she would later suffer a fatal crash adds a macabre touch.

Later in the week, Amherst Cinema members are treated to a free screening of They Came To Play, a chronicle of the Van Cliburn amateur pianist competition—think Spellbound for musicians, with a diverse group of contestants descending on Texas from all over the world. (Also open to the public at regular ticket prices.)

Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.