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LITTLE CHILDREN Send This Review to a Friend
Somewhat satirical but also sad, “Little Children,” a much-discussed selection at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival (and also selected by the New York Film Festival) examines its suburban characters in microscopic close-up. Director Todd Field (“In the Bedroom”), who wrote the screenplay with Tom Perrotta based on Perrotta’s novel, takes aim at parenting, marital relationships, straying, frustration and anger and, for good measure, the struggles of an exhibitionist and the community’s reaction against him.
That’s a generous stew, but a worthy cast does much to grasp our interest, and the screenplay focuses our concerns about the characters reflecting conditions and attitudes that resonate in today’s society.
Kate Winslet plays Sarah Pierce, who has a young daughter but is not realty cut out for motherhood. Sarah is uncomfortable in her life, and her marriage to Richard (Gregg Edelman) is boring and he spends time masturbating to computer porn, which disgusts her when she catches him. Sarah is ripe for an affair, especially since she is gutsier than the women she hangs out with at the playground. The ladies are intrigued when they see Brad (Patrick Wilson), an attractive married man they nickname “the prom king.” Sarah and Brad develop a growing relationship with their children as playmates providing the excuse to do things together. The attraction grows increasingly steamy.
At home, Brad’s relationship with his wife Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) has cooled and the situation is built for Brad and Sarah to start anew together. Or is it? Life in “Little Children” is not that simple.
A pitiful situation in town is the presence of Ronnie McGorvey, a man who exposes himself to children and is struggling to change but obviously compulsive to the point at which he has no control. Jackie Earle Haley makes him somewhat sympathetic, which is a difficult feat. Ronnie’s mother urges him to try to get a woman in his life, but one resulting episode is heartbreaking for his date, as well as for him. Brad has a friendship with a disgruntled local man who leads a group trying to whip up public furor against Ronnie, but we eventually get to know the circumstances that helped make the bully such an angry man..
“Little Children” is involving yet upsetting, with adults behaving like children in the midst of trying to protect their children. Happiness is elusive in this probing work. A New Line Cinema release.
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