Downright chilling in the way it dissects the ins and outs of suburban life ... with shattering precision, like an anthropologist looking in from the outside.
Little Children (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:152
Fresh:121
Rotten:31
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Little Children takes a penetrating look at suburbia and its flawed individuals with an unflinching yet humane eye.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexuality and nudity, language and some disturbing content.
Runtime: 2 hrs 17 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Oct 17, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $5,307,219
Synopsis: Actor-turned-director Todd Field follows up his Oscar-nominated drama, IN THE BEDROOM, with this ambitious adaptation of Tom Perrotta's celebrated novel. Set in the imploding minefields of modern... Actor-turned-director Todd Field follows up his Oscar-nominated drama, IN THE BEDROOM, with this ambitious adaptation of Tom Perrotta's celebrated novel. Set in the imploding minefields of modern suburbia, LITTLE CHILDREN follows several inhabitants of a small American town as they fumble their way through adulthood. Numb-to-life housewife and mother Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet) finds an outlet for her yearning in gorgeous househusband Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), who is crippled with insecurity over the fact that his perfect wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), is the family breadwinner. When Sarah and Brad meet at the local playground one afternoon, a passionate affair is sparked. In a further attempt to reclaim his youthful fire, Brad joins a night football league with Larry Hedges (Noah Emmerich), a former cop who has begun to harass a convicted sex offender, Ronnie J. McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley). These troubled lives eventually collide, causing each individual to take full responsibility for their not-so-responsible actions. Adapted for the screen by Field and Perrotta and artfully photographed by Antonio Calvache, LITTLE CHILDREN is a bitingly funny, and nakedly honest, critique of middle class dysfunction. Though the cast is universally superb, it is former child actor Haley (THE BAD NEWS BEARS, BREAKING AWAY) who steals the show. After only two features, Field proves that he is a truly gifted storyteller. This film was included in the 44th New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. [More]
Starring: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Gregg Edelman, Sadie Goldstein
Starring: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Gregg Edelman, Sadie Goldstein, Jennifer Connelly, Jackie Earle Haley, Jane Adams, Phyllis Somerville, Sarah Buxton
Director: Todd Field
Director: Todd Field
Producer: Albert Berger
Composer: Thomas Newman
Studio: New Line Cinema
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Reviews for Little Children
Perhaps most satisfying when viewed as a particularly fraught, literate and beautifully acted soap opera; no doubt the movie's East Wyndham, Mass., is located on the same commuter train line that serves Peyton Place and Wisteria Lane.
A wonderfully impulsive, engrossing journey of lustful temptation and an engaging snapshot of fixation.
Field has merely looked down upon people trying to make sense of their lives, and judged them unworthy.
Little Children includes all the clichéd scenarios of a midday TV sudser, but they're ratcheted up several seedy degrees.
Filmmaker Todd Field seems to have completely missed the point of his source material, Tom Perrotta's tale of suburban angst, longing and temptation, which is at least slightly a parody.
Unexpected compassion is one of the few hopeful things in Little Children, which will not be easy for moviegoers to shake. I saw it three months ago and I'm still chewing over its central irony.
The bulky melodrama spreads throughout the last half of the film like an acrid and unromantic miasma or like the shards of shattered marriage vows cast helter-skelter into an unknowable future.
Little Children is intentionally very literary, with narration that sometimes substitutes for dialogue and a symmetrical structure.
Little Children is outstanding and I think it will be one of those films that people don’t really recognize it’s greatness until a few years down the road.
Little Children is a fable, complete with a full throated narrator and Aesopesque moral. It teaches its lesson almost like one that would be taught to children - with extreme scenarios and exaggerated characterizations.
The success Fields has with this film comes through the uncomfortable intersection between comedy, melodrama and tragedy. Oh, and romance.
Sure to raise heckles in the tabloid press, this is complex, thought-provoking cinema.
Little Children is neither a sitcom nor a melodrama. Instead, it feels like real life, inhabited by real people with real problems. If this story actually happened, this is exactly how it would go down.
An honest look at infidelity and its ramifications. Clearly one of the best of the year with multiple Oscar-caliber performances, especially by the brilliant Kate Winslet.
An honest film with believable characters that does not depend on arbitrary or unlikely plot developments to achieve dramatic tension.
One of the very best movies of the year, Little Children is a gripping romantic tragedy.
Sexual deviates become heroes. This film is excrement on celluloid.
Latest News for Little Children
July 23, 2007:
Jackie Earle Haley, More Confirmed for Watchmen Cast
Expect to see a whole lot of "Watchmen" updates over the next several months. And here's one: Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, and Malin Akerman have signed deals to appear in... More...
June 18, 2007:
Patrick Wilson (Pretty Much) Confirmed for "Watchmen"
He did great work in both "Hard Candy" and "Little Children," so now it might be time for Patrick Wilson's shot at the comic book material. More...
January 30, 2007:
SAG Award Winners Revealed, Oscar Predicting Hits Full Steam
Known as a big predictor of what'll go down Oscar night, the Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony took place last Sunday to a rapturous Hollywood crowd without a hitch (or... More...
January 23, 2007:
Oscar Nominations Announced: "Little Miss Sunshine," "Dreamgirls," "Borat" Deemed Worthy
The expected heavy hitters made the grade -- Scorsese, Whitaker, "Dreamgirls" -- but there were a handful of surprises...let's just say, if you thought you'd never... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
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|---|---|
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