Little Children (2006)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 157
Fresh: 125 | Rotten: 32
Little Children takes a penetrating look at suburbia and its flawed individuals with an unflinching yet humane eye.
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 7
Little Children takes a penetrating look at suburbia and its flawed individuals with an unflinching yet humane eye.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 93,683
My Rating
Movie Info
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Todd Field teams with novelist Tom Perrotta to adapt Perrotta's acclaimed novel concerning the suburban malaise experienced by a handful of small-town individuals whose intersecting lives converge in a variety of surprising, and sometimes ominous, ways. Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, and Patrick Wilson star in a cinematic adaptation that doesn't aim so much to simply reproduce the book for the screen as it does to re-imagine the written word by exploring new
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Cast
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Kate Winslet
Sarah Pierce -
Jennifer Connelly
Kathy Adamson -
Patrick Wilson
Brad Adamson -
Jackie Earle Haley
Ronnie J. McGorvey -
Noah Emmerich
Larry Hedges -
Gregg Edelman
Richard Pierce -
Phyllis Somerville
May McGorvey -
Raymond J. Barry
Bullhorn Bob -
Jane Adams (II)
Sheila -
Ty Simpkins
Aaron Adamson -
Helen Carey
Jean, Slutty Kay -
Sadie Goldstein
Lucy Pierce -
Catherine Wolf
Marjorie -
Mary B McCann
Mary Ann -
Trini Alvarado
Theresa -
Marsha Dietlein Bennett
Cheryl -
Sarah Buxton
Slutty Kay -
Thomas Greaney
Troy -
Anna Audia
Isabella -
Celestial Hakim
Courtney -
Hunter Reid
Christian -
Chad Brown
Tony Correnti -
Phil McGlaston
Rogers Dewayne -
Bruce Kirkpatrick
Bart Williams -
Adam Mucci
Richie Murphy -
Chance Kelly
Pete Olaffson -
Rebecca Schull
Laurel -
Crystal Field
Josephine -
Lola Pashalinski
Bridget -
Walker Ryan
'G' -
David Cole
Skateboarder 2 -
Weston Elrod
skateboarder 3 -
Erica Berg
Richard's Secretary -
Leo Trombetta
Frank -
Christopher Nicholas Smit...
Steakhouse Waiter -
Adam Sietz
Large Man -
Tom Perrotta
Small Man -
Stan Carp
Cabbie -
Sandra Berrios
Kind Woman in Hospital -
Ivar Brogger
ICU Counsellor -
Myra Turley
ICU Nurse -
David Rowdon
Tow Yard Attendant -
Paul Mott
Boy in Katy's Documenta... -
Margaret Pace
EMT -
Beatrice Rigaud
Concerned Mom at Pool -
Mary Goggin
Concerned Mom at Pool -
Jillian Lindig
Concerned Mom at Pool -
William Harvey
Policeman at Pool -
Casper Andreas
Policeman at Pool -
Matt Garifo
Lifegaurd -
Brooke Fazio
Snack Girl -
Monica Dobson
Wading Pool Mom -
Ken Tirado
Bartender -
Carlie LaPorta
Children at Steakhouse -
Joe C. Guest
Ted From Richard's Offi... -
Bruce Gross
Ray From Next Door -
Patrick Larkin
Auditor Team Captain -
Michael Diesel
Police Officer at McGor... -
Leon Vitali
Oddly Familiar Man -
Conrad Angel Corral
Slutty Kay Fan Club Mem... -
Darrell E. Geer
Slutty Kay Fan Club Mem... -
Gil Ira Hayes
Slutty Kay Fan Club Mem... -
Mark A. Pierce
Slutty Kay Fan Club Mem... -
Marshall Lefcourt
Slutty Kay Fan Club Mem... -
Jennifer Rainville
Reporter -
Gary Anthony Ramsay
off-screen anchor -
Patricia A. Gangemi
Concerned Parent -
Cynthia L. Wiese
Concerned Parent -
Loren Wiese
Concerned Parent -
Clare F. Mithcell
Concerned Parent -
John Begley
Background Football Pla... -
Travis Koestler
Skateboarder -
Daniel Falla
Skateboarder -
Luis Tolentilo
Skateboarder -
Tugman Tookmanlian
Skateboarder
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All Critics (157) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (131) | Rotten (35) | DVD (18)
Little Children is disturbing and smart and the best satire of modern American suburbia since American Beauty.
Well-acted and meticulously crafted, Little Children can feel less like a full-blooded representation of life than a disquieting literary exercise.
I didn't like any of these characters, but I kept pulling for them anyway -- right up to the shock-o-riffic ending, when I felt I'd been sucker-punched.
As in Field's first film, the characters are drawn with such compassion their follies become our own and their desires seem as vast as the night sky.
Little Children includes all the clichéd scenarios of a midday TV sudser, but they're ratcheted up several seedy degrees.
A beautifully observed, profoundly moving tale of suburban malaise.
More than just another dissection of suburban sexual frustration, its concern with children, parents and those of us who lie somewhere in-between make Little Children a minor masterpiece.
It's not necessarily a cautionary tale, but more a look within a surface utopia that doesn't really exist.
As commentary on our time, it may be accurate. As movie drama, it isn't so much overheated as reheated in the microwave on high.
Its antiseptic textures merely whimper 'Oscar clip'
Bereft of a protagonist, the movie breaks down under the weight of absurd voice-over narration and an exploitative ending that is as indefensibly wrongheaded as it is cheap.
Blame Field (remember, Perrotta also wrote the knifelike Election), for facing the material too squarely.
Mature story of suburban fear and yearning.
A risky and rewarding art film, but definitely for grown-ups.
Little Children is about as close as a movie can get to literature %u2014 rich, nuanced, erudite and multi-layered.
The leads are self-delusional, secretive, dependent, nakedly desperate at times, and all fascinating.
The film is populated with such self-obsessed, distasteful characters, it's hard to care how or why any of them finds happiness.
Provides a taut commentary on hypocrisy, human interaction, and the lies we tell ourselves...
predstavlja upravo ono %u0161to bi "ozbiljni" holivudski film trebao biti
[The] narrator talks as if he were reading from a children's storybook. This bold stylistic choice bathes the film in a sarcastic light, challenging you either to laugh at its darker moments or regard the entire thing as a put-on.
Peyton Place with a perv!
What actually felt more like a play to me because it was so passive and restrained, showcases some amazing talent.
A suburban soap opera set in Anywhere, Massachusetts and spoiled by its narrator, Will Lyman, whose distinct voice you will undoubtedly recognize if you're familiar with such PBS series as Frontline and Nova.
"I don't like sharks, they eat you up," says Patrick Wilson's son at one point, not only foreshadowing the embarrassing Jaws riff at the town pool but explaining the unpleasantly self-devouring nature of the film itself.
Audience Reviews for Little Children
Super Reviewer
The film starts off really cooking with some sharp and rather witty satire, but then eventually devolves into overwrought melodrama that runs overlong and doesn't really tell me me anything I didn't really already know. Plus, the movie makes it seem like all suburbanites suffer like these characters do, and that's just not the case at all.
I did enjoy the film a fair amount though, that much is certain. I'm mixed about the use of narration, especially since it mostly tells instead of showing, which gets to me. Also, I think the subplot about the sex offender could have been better incorporated into the story, especially since it is some of the best material here, with Jackie Earle Haley giving a brilliant performance in a really tough and unenviable role.
The stuff concerning adultery and midlife crisis is somewhat on the nose and reeks of rehahing of better movies, but it is still decently well played, and no one here really gives a bad performance, although Connelly could have been used more, and it did sorta seem like the actors were fishing for Oscars at times.
Still, the film looks great, the music's not bad, and I wasn't really as bored as I could have been.
Super Reviewer
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- Mary Ann: Oh that's nice. So now cheating on your husband makes you a feminist?
- Sarah Pierce: No, no, no. It's not the cheating. It's the hunger - the hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness.
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- Sarah Pierce: My professors would kill me for even thinking this, but, in her own strange way Emma Bovary is a feminist.
- Mary Ann: Oh, that's nice. So now, cheating on your husband makes you a feminist.
- Sarah Pierce: No, no, no. It's not the cheating. It's the hunger. The hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness.
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- May McGorvey: There. You look handsome. She won't be dissapointed
- Ronnie J. McGorvey: Wait'll she hears about my criminal record
- May McGorvey: I don't think you need to get into that just yet. Why don't you stick to small talk?
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- Sarah Pierce: How pretty is she?
- Brad Adamson: A knockout...
- Brad Adamson: Beauty is overratted, Sarah.
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- Ronnie J. McGorvey: I'm Good Now...
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June 18, 2007:
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January 30, 2007:
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