Little Children (2006)
Directed by Todd Field
The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations.
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11 films that influenced Little Children
What critics say influenced Little Children
Suburbia is hell, and serious Hollywood movies from The Graduate to American Beauty have been there to point fingers on the lawns of the damned.
That overrated Oscar winner "American Beauty" set the template for funny-sad movies about angst-ridden denizens of the 'burbs, and now "Little Children" carries it forward.
Clucking hausfraus, midnight football matches and assorted American Beauty residue abounds: the mandatory scream falls to Haley, who is bound to get critical kudos just for the "daring" conception of his character, like Dylan Baker's grim-faced pederast in Happiness.
There are echoes of Magnolia in its winding through a community and American Beauty in addressing suburban angst, but it is more accurate in its subdued characterisations than either.
Its faithfulness to the book was ensured by Perrotta's collaboration on the screenplay and the result, for me, is closer to "American Beauty"'s warped depiction of family than his own "In the Bedroom" of 2001.
Clucking hausfraus, midnight football matches and assorted American Beauty residue abounds: the mandatory scream falls to Haley, who is bound to get critical kudos just for the "daring" conception of his character, like Dylan Baker's grim-faced pederast in Happiness.
Echoing Sam Mendes' American Beauty and Todd Solondz's Happiness, Little Children should be potential Oscar material, thanks to the direction and performances, especially from Winslet and Wilson.
Mary Ann's approach to child-rearing combines a militarism, adherence to protocol and self-satisfaction not seen since "The King and I," and while Sarah tries to conform to the strict rules of snack times and play-dates, she can't manage to subsume herself to the degree required by her cohorts.
The story of an illicit love affair that coincides with a presumed pedophile's move to town, "Little Children" is based on a book by Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel "Election" (Alexander Payne's film was later based on it).
Pedigree: It's from Tom Perrotta, the writer of Election, and writer-director Todd Field (In the Bedroom).
Cowriter (with novelist Tom Perrotta, "Election")/director Todd Fields ("In the Bedroom") shifts from the murky blackness of the human heart exposed by grief that he explored "In the Bedroom" to the unfocused self-centeredness of unformed yuppies with every bit as keen an instinct for what makes people tick.
"Little Children" is far from a bad movie, but it's not as deep and subtly disturbing as Fields' " In the Bedroom " or as infernally funny as Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's film adaptation of Perrotta's novel Election.
A good measuring stick would be Alexander Payne's Election (1999), which was also adapted from a novel by Tom Perotta and was a good deal tighter and more fearless; that movie sustained its biting humor, while Little Children can't quite decide on a tone.
Todd Field's second feature film, like his debut "In the Bedroom," is another adaptation, but this time, he collaborated with the novel's author Tom Perrotta ("Election"), which helps instill more overt humor into what is essentially a dark and quirky character drama.
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Field -- who acted in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" -- has mentioned the great director's "Barry Lyndon" as an influence here, though Kubrick's "Lolita" is closer in spirit to "Little Children's" beady, satiric take on sexual compulsion.
The performance brings to mind Kevin Bacon's similarly-themed "The Woodsman" and it grounds the film in a way none of its other characters can.
Then there’s Jackie Earle Haley, who was a big star back in the 70’s after appearing in The Bad News Bears (one of my all time favorite films).
More importantly, the movie signifies one of the greatest Hollywood comebacks, maybe ever, as actor Jackie Earl Haley, best known for his '80s bad boy roles in "The Bad News Bears" and "Breaking Away," creates a sympathetic character out of the creepy McGorvey.
Field -- who acted in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" -- has mentioned the great director's "Barry Lyndon" as an influence here, though Kubrick's "Lolita" is closer in spirit to "Little Children's" beady, satiric take on sexual compulsion.
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Field, whose last film was "In the Bedroom," co-wrote the movie with Perrotta, with whom he obviously shares an interest in hermetic environments and a fascination with what happens when their familiar dynamics are disturbed by outside or deviant forces.
The followup from writer/director Todd Field to his 2001 In the Bedroom , this is something of a mirror image to that film: where his earlier work was an exquisite portrait of marital intimacy, this one is about, in part, where marriage falls apart, about the lack of that intimacy.
Pedigree: It's from Tom Perrotta, the writer of Election, and writer-director Todd Field (In the Bedroom).
Writer/director Todd Field follows up his Academy Award nominated 2001 film In the Bedroom with a much more accessible entry.
In this one from Todd (In the Bedroom) Field, ominous narration and rich cinematography layer suburban parents Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, and Jennifer Connelly in an artisanal-cheesy casserole of adultery and literary pretension.
That quality no doubt appealed to filmmaker Todd Field, whose Oscar-nominated 2001 drama In the Bedroom explored similar territory.
That Field's two films have earned a total of five Oscar nominations for acting, including for Winslet and her co-star, Jackie Earle Haley, is probably because Field was an actor himself - he was the piano player in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" - and his behaviorally based storytelling reveals itself through nuanced performances.
Field -- who acted in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" -- has mentioned the great director's "Barry Lyndon" as an influence here, though Kubrick's "Lolita" is closer in spirit to "Little Children's" beady, satiric take on sexual compulsion.