Little Children
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Movie Reviews of Little Children
Movie Review: A sense of humor mixed in with complex dark themes. Wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was unprepared for the complexity and multi-layered personalities in this small gem of a film based on a book by Tom Perrota. It's set in suburbia, where Kate Winslet is a stay-at-home mom. The film opens with a playground scene which is satirical, humorous and very very real, with the added device of a male narrator adding insight to the small minded women surrounding Winslet. Then there is Patrick Wilson, cast as a stay-at-home husband while his wife, Jennifer Connoly, supports the family. Yes, Kate and Patrick do eventually get together, but there is a lot more to the film than that.
Central to the story is the fact that a convicted pedophile, played by Ronald James McCorvey, has just been released from jail. He's living with his mother in a small house in the neighborhood. Everyone in the town is incensed and he and his mother are made miserable by the constant threats and spray painting on their driveway. McCorvey is outstanding in this role. There's a lot of creepiness. But he's a human being after all and is driven by forces he doesn't understand. His mother tries to help him. She even sets him up with a date with a woman. How that all plays out is fascinating and inevitable.
This is a film that mixes its dark themes with a bit of humor and calls for subtly in the screenplay and the acting. Frankly, it's perfect. I loved the film.
Movie Review: Suffer Little Children
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, I'm not going to compare the novel to the film. This isn't a book review.
Now, having not read the novel and just going off by what I saw, I must say that the Academy got it wrong again! Am I surprised? Not at all. Though "Little Children" isn't the easiest film to digest. It does contain very mature subject matter. Parents beware! Don't let the joyful cover trick you into thinking that this film is appropriate for your little ones. It's not! You on the other hand might get someting out of it. That is, if you apppreciate good ADULT melodrama/satire/social commentary.
It's a shame "Little Children" didn't get the attention it so desperately deserved back in '06. It barely even made money at the box office which is quiete surprising seeing that this film has a top notch production value. Writer/director Todd Field (In The Bedroom) does an amazing job capturing the wickedly funny aspects of suburbia as well as the dark gloominess behind closed doors. The casting also is comprised of fine choices. The brilliant Kate Winslet returns to helm a pitch perfect American accent as well as film's best kept little secret, Patrick Wilson, who is supurb! Jennifer Connely is good as usual (even though she gets second billing, she's not in it that much. However, she gives great support.)
This was my pick for best film of 2006. Find out why!
Movie Review: A turning point in American society
Summary: 5 Stars
Little Children is one of those films that chronicles a turning point in American society, away from God's given people civilizing the world toward self-doubt and introspection.
The film portrays the roots of social deviance through the unfulfilled lives of characters who happen to live in the same neighborhood, and so coincide and may interact. Although largely told through the eyes of one character, the film does not have the traditional simple Hollywood plot line. Despite that the film keeps you on the edge of your seat, raises uncomfortable questions and succeeds by the quality of it's script, direction and acting.
Little Children ends with one of the most brutally symbolic moments in film and makes the title disturbingly poignant. The audience response will reveal the answer to one of the fundamental questions of civilization. Are you prejudiced? There are many expressions of prejudice. Anyone who expresses any one is prejudiced. I'm not sure this scene belongs in this film and the film does not push the point, but it is there, so Little Children will become a classic. It is curious how truly great actors can pick greatest scripts, when lesser even famous household names walk away. For that reason Kate Winslet, I'll be watching you.
Movie Review: The Perfect Valentine's Day Gift
Summary: 5 Stars
Watching "Little Children" I recalled "American Beauty", another film that assayed the dark underbelly of Middle America. To me, "American Beauty" was a crass case of male wish fulfillment that at it's heart held it's characters in contempt and resorted to ludicrous stereotypes. "Little Children" is a much more thoughtful film that sympathizes with it's main characters despite their foibles. The film's title is, of course, ironic because it doesn't refer to the tots but rather to their adult caregivers who suffer from varying forms of arrested developement. Kate Winslet gives a superb rendering of an intelligent woman trapped in a loveless marriage looking for direction in her life. Patrick Wilson, as Winslet's paramour, is equally fine as a man in a stale marriage who has yet to commit to career choice. The film's best performance is delivered by Jackie Earle Haley as a sex offender. We sympathize with Haley because he has come to terms with his deviance but is powerless to reign it in. A provocative film that deserved a wider reception than what it received on it's original release. As a footnote I wonder why the company that distributed this disc substituted the original erotic posterwork for the generic photo that appears on the DVD.Movie Review: Wow!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best films I've seen in quite a while, with razor-sharp social commentary and hilarious satire skillfully interwoven into the storyline. It's got everything: superb cast (Kate Winslet again is spectacular), fluid script, engaging subtext yet easily absorbs your attention/interest not like many artsy films. Probably the best suburbian dystopia movie since "American Beauty"---actually it is more like a more sophisticated but bare-knuckle, take-no-prisoners version of "American Beauty." Not as jagged and ruthless as Todd Solondz's 1998 suburbian dystopia "Happiness" though. Brilliant psychosocial analysis of the whole miserable, repressed, and plastic human landscape of upper-middle-class suburbian culture. If you have ever lived in this setting or know people who do, this film is sure to ring a ton of bells left and right.
The only weak spot is the resolution at the end feeling kind of pat, especially having the guy who spends the whole film persecuting a convicted sex offender suddenly feel remorse and become his rescuer. A bit on the hokey side, reminds me of "Crash"---but I'll bet most people love that schmaltzy touch.