Little Children (2006)
#66 in my 2007 movie challenge was Todd Fields’s Little Children, based on the novel by Tom Perotta. This was a dark, well-done film.
Kate Winslet plays a bored stay-at-home mom who falls into an affair with a handsome SAH dad. The suburban and domestic frustrations are squirmingly well depicted. Though I generally dislike voiceover, I thought it worked well here. Jackie Earle Haley was devastating as a convicted pedophile who’s been released from jail. He’s a complex character that could easily have been written or acted too simplistically. There is uneasy tension throughout the movie, especially in regard to the well being of children. I found it interesting that in the end, no children were harmed, though the adults were pretty banged up both physically and emotionally.
I really empathized with a lot of Kate Winslet’s messy-mom tendencies, like not having a healthy snack packed. I also recognized the social tension from the playground moms. A few things didn’t ring true, though. One, all the moms who had 3 to 4 year olds would usually have another child or be pregnant, at least in our neighborhood. Two, I don’t know any mom who can manage to sit on a bench and read a book while her kid plays; I only wish it were that easy to make time to read. And three, Kate Winslet is not believable as a mousy character, even compared to Jennifer Connelly.
These are tiny quibbles, though. The film is quiet but powerful, and has some brute honesty about marriage, children, and societal expectations.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:52 am
This is one of the rare occasions where I thought the movie was better than the book.
October 7th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Yay! I don’ t feel the need to read it, at least soon.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I didn’t like this book but I do have this DVD in my pile if only for the hotness of the main dude.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Yes, he was sort of ridiculously good looking, wasn’t he?