LITTLE CHILDREN
Suburban critique. It didn’t start with “American Beauty,” but perhaps that film, so universally lauded on it’s arrival but now experiencing revisionist parodying for its sincere naivete, set a new benchmark.
Enter “Little Children,” writer-director Todd Fields (he co-wrote “Little Children” with Tom Perrotta from his book of the same name) first work since the haunting masterpiece of upper middle-class comfort meeting with tragedy “In the Bedroom.
“Little Children” stars Kate Winslet as Sarah Pierce, a not so happy suburban mom who often takes her young daughter Lucy to the park. As the unexpected and absolutely hilarious narration tells us, Sarah attempts to observe the other suburban moms at the park as though she were an anthropologist and not actually one of them. But she is one of them, and watching their routine, being privy to their chatter, the audience is almost certainly on Sarah’s side.
But who is Sarah? She’s not a bad mother, but not a great one, she makes little mistakes and she approaches mothering as a choir, something to be done with, waiting to clock out for an afternoon walk when her husband finally comes home. Her husband, Richard is a total dolt. He does well at his very uninteresting job so they have a nice home He also has an online porn addiction. Other than a certain anger when she catches him, they seem to care for each other very little. In fact they seem like roommates.
We don’t know what happened to Sarah, how she ended up here, but we do know that she has a master’s in English Literature. That is who she was. She may try to write a bit in her spare time. Enter Brad (Patrick Wilson). He is the handsome athletic single dad who brings his little boy Aaron to the park. The other mothers swoon over him, they call him the prom king, and as Sarah tells him, he is a major part of their fantasy lives. Sarah goes beyond fantasy. After conversation, she finds herself thinking of him. Brad finds himself thinking of her as well. Even though, as the narrator tells us, she is nowhere near as pretty as his wife, Kathy, played by the quite beautiful Jennifer Connelly. Kathy is a reasonably successful documentary film maker. Brad is unemployed and has failed the bar exam twice. Kathy sends him to the library to study every night but he doesn’t make it. With Brad, like Sarah, we are not quite sure how he got here and what he wants, but suffice it to say the two start a torrid affair which awakens in both of them life.
Then there is a subplot involving a recently released middle aged child sex offender, Ronnie played by Jackie Earl Haley (yes, the kid from the original “Bad News Bears”). We see Ronnie’s struggle, living with his loving mother, and trying to overcome his disease under constant harassment from the community and specifically an unstable ex-cop named Larry (Noah Emmerich, perfectly portraying a very disturbed man ), who happens to have recruited Brad to play in a night touch football league with a bunch of cops. Ronnie goes out on a date with another troubled soul. Just when we are becoming overly sympathetic to Ronnie, he does something that lets us know he is disturbed, and that “Little Children” is a film about grey areas, not one of simple answers.
And so these characters interact. We don’t quite know where the plot is going but we assume they will all collide, perhaps in a not so great way.
“Little Children” is an excellent film. I have not commented on it so far, but have rather sketched out these extraordinarily interesting and complex characters. They are very real, very sad, and very funny. Brad deserves no real sympathy. He isn’t sure what’s wrong with him. He has a wonderful wife, and aside from normal post child husband grievances such as a lack of sex, he has little to complain about. His story will be resolved. Sarah’s really won’t and perhaps that is because we don’t know enough about her before the events of the film, or perhaps she doesn’t know enough about herself.
The suburbs. The American dream so rife for critique, because some people arrive at perfection and are surprised to find there’s not so much there.
Story: A
Suburban critique involving two unhappy stay at home parents, a child sex offender, his mother, and an ex-cop.
Acting: A
Very good. Jackie Earl Haley is a revelation, a nod to Noah Emmerich and kudos to the excellent Kate Winslet.
Visuals: B
Just fine, do not take away or distract, a moderate pace.
Originality/Innovation: B+
Depth, humor and tragedy. Really explores the characters.
Enjoyability Grade: A
Very funny, very heavy, very insightful. I enjoyed it.
Overall Grade: A
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