Movies starring Will Ferrell, the former Saturday Night Live star who brought his trademark brand of quirky, crass humor to the big screen with movies like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy (2004) and Old School (2003), are not usually the place to look for lesbians. Unless you're looking for a good joke about lesbians. His movies usually have at least a few of those.

But in Ferrell's latest comedic adventure Kicking and Screaming, which opened this weekend, there is not one but two actual lesbian characters--and (almost) no lesbian jokes.

Although Kicking and Screaming revolves around a children's soccer team coached by Phil Weston (Farrell), most of the childish behavior stems from the two primary adult characters, Phil, and his father Buck (Robert Duvall), as they engage in an all out war competing against each other in everything from having the prettiest wife to playing tether ball.

Both Phil and his father have sons of identical age (yes, that would make the two boys uncle and nephew) who are on the Gladiators soccer team that Buck coaches. Unfortunately, “little Bucky” has more talent than his "nephew" Sam, who ends up spending most of the games on the bench. Phil, who has nary a hint of athletic ability himself, tries in vain to impress his super-competitive jock father and convince him to give Sam more playing time. He finally decides to give his old man a run for his money when ego-centric Buck trades Phil’s son Sam to the lowly Tigers. With a lifetime of resentment and pent-up hostility, Phil sees the Tigers as a golden opportunity to serve his father a little payback, and decides to coach the Tigers to victory, enlisting help from his father’s nemesis and next door neighbor, the legendary Mike Ditka (playing himself).

Enter the lesbian couple, Ann Hogan (Rachael Harris) and Donna "Chief" Jones (Laura Knightlinger), and their tiny adopted son Byong Sun (Elliot Cho).

“We aren’t like the other parents,” the lesbian couple says upon introducing themselves to Phil in the parking lot before the team's first practice. With that comment, Ann and Chief mean that they actually show support for their child by attending all of his games, but of course, Phil misunderstands and the conversation quickly devolves into Will Ferrell trying to pull his foot out of his mouth when he says something along the lines of "No, you're not like the other parents...you're better!" Another parent overhears and asks him what he means by "better," accusing him of playing favorites, and Phil sinks further into verbal quicksand as he tries to explain, with a puzzled Ann and Chief looking on.

It's a funny exchange, and about the only one in the movie that refers to the couple's sexual orientation. The words "lesbian" or "gay" are never used in the movie. In fact, if you step out of the room during this scene, you might not even realize that they are gay. Chief and Ann come across like all the other soccer moms, except for a lame attempt to make Chief seem like the butch one (predicated on the assumption that of course one of the women in a lesbian couple is the man) by giving her a painfully firm handshake, a deep voice, and the nickname "Chief"--but keeping her completely feminine in appearance (Knightlinger's version of a butch lesbian is one of the film's few unintentionally comic additions to the story).

There are a few small differences between Ann and Chief and the others. Out of all of the parents, the lesbian couple are the only parents to voice objection to Phil’s outlandish behavior, telling him at one point to “ease up” (to which he replies humorously, "You ease up on that corduroy jacket!"). Byong Sun is the only Asian boy on the team, but he comes across as shyly well-adjusted, and none the worse for wear having lesbian parents.

But by and large, Ann and Chief are treated either the same as the other parents, or with exaggerated friendliness, by men eager to demonstrate how accepting they are (“Nice couple," comments Mike Ditka enthusiastically).

Phil’s behavior goes from good to bad quickly (as does the plot of this movie) as he attempts to take the Tigers to the Championships, and not surprisingly, Phil’s coaching techniques begin to mirror those of his father’s in his quest to lead his underdog team to victory and prove his father wrong. One of his lowest (and admittedly funny) moments occurs when Phil is encouraging his players by saying, “You can win and go on to greatness or you can lose and probably face a series of cataclysmic events for the rest of your life.” As Phil turns into a monstrous psycho-coach (fueled, in part, by an inexplicable addiction to coffee—a substance he has apparently just discovered), we are treated to several fleeting moments of comic delight while the Tigers ultimately make it to the finals.

Like Chevy Chase before him, Ferrell has a canny ability to keep audiences laughing even when the lines aren’t that funny. But in Kicking and Screaming, one can’t help feeling that Farrell’s acting is a bit forced in places.

There are moments that are laugh-out-loud funny, such as when Phil pushes an opposing team member’s kid down to the ground when the referee isn’t looking, or when he yells “Losers!” through a soccer cone at the kids on the team that the Tigers have just defeated. With a poorly written script and a less-than-notable performance by Will Farrell, however, these scenes are too few and far between.

Criticism of the plot aside, it's refreshing to see a big-budget comedy with lesbian characters in which, for once, the laughs aren't at their expense. Given the small size of their role in the film, the characters of Ann and Chief aren't enough justification for lesbian viewers to rush out and see Kicking and Screaming. But it's nice to know they're there.