Movie Review: Little Children

Little Children is the latest film from Todd Field. If you saw 2001's In the Bedroom you have a sense of the tone of this film. It's a story of suburbia and while much tamer than Blue Velvet, it's still a little twisted and about how no one is perfect. And if you want a Madam Bovary analogy, it's spelled out for you in a book club meeting.

Kate Winslet's husband is always working and she spends the days taking care of her small daughter Lucy. It's suburbia so she walks to the park and the pool. At first we see her with other mothers at the park and she's an outsider. If the seating arrangement didn't tell us this the anthropologist voice-over informs us. It's a device that worked well in The Gods Must be Crazy but it's not quite as funny here, because the movie isn't as funny. Anyway, the other mothers oggle Brad (Patrick Wilson) who brings his son the park. They dress up for him but have never spoken to him, Sarah (Winslet) actually makes the move and speaks to him and to win a bet, kisses him.

We learn that Brad is married to documentary producer Jennifer Connelly and is studying law to pass the bar. But he's not really studying, he goes out at night and watches kids skateboard. Add to this mix that a sex offender (Jackie Earle Haley!) is out of jail and has moved back into the neighborhood with his mother and a former cop who's taken it on himself to watch (and harass) him.

So you can see that Sarah and Brad start an affair and things get messy. You probably can't see how it all ends. The movie's tone stays very human, this isn't melodrama, but gets very bleak. Surprisingly I found the end could go in a lot of different ways and I was kinda on the edge of my seat. All the characters are flawed but I found myself caring for some of them and not necessarily the ones I would have thought of at the beginning of the film. The film is well shot and acted, but I didn't find it particularly profound (like say Crash) or particularly funny (though the woman next to me said the book was funnier). It was ok and would be a fine DVD rental.