Amazon.co.uk Review
Kate Winslet operates at a galaxy-class level in Little Children, Todd Field's gratifyingly grown-up look at unhappy suburbia. Winslet is magnificent, in an Oscar-nominated performance, as a stroller-pushing mother who becomes attracted to a passive househusband (Patrick Wilson). Their slow-burning infidelity (Field wisely allows time to pass in this unhurried film) is contrasted with a more sensational subplot, about a convicted pedophile (Jackie Earle Haley, also Oscar nominated) returning to the neighborhood to live with his mother (Phyllis Somerville). Field, who brought his civilized approach to In the Bedroom, uses a deliberately literary style here, including a device with a narrator who sounds as though he's sitting at our side as he reads from Tom Perotta's novel. (The narrator is a superb touch--his cultivated voice distances us from the sloppy passions of the characters.) The film's biggest miscalculation is a self-appointed neighborhood vigilante (Noah Emmerich) determined to make life miserable for the paedophile. But Wilson is appropriately nebulous, Jennifer Connelly solid as his wife, and Haley (child star of the Bad News Bears movies), as the creepy, childlike molester, found himself rediscovered after a long career layoff. There's decent acting here, but Winslet is in a zone of her own, with so much emotional honesty and subtlety of expression that she transforms a good movie into a must-see. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Amelie meets American Beauty.......2008-01-27
This is a totally absorbing story. Full of humour, pathos and insight. A film well worth watching.
The only disappointng element was the unsatisfactory ending which I can't talk at it would spoil it for people who haven't seen the film! In fact, I would have given this film 5 stars but for the ending.
thought provoking.......2008-01-18
It was different in as much as the characters didn t behave as I expected them to. Some of the story was a bit difficult to understand, such as why Kate Winslett s character would marry the man she did and why she would setle for that kind of life. Thr treatment of the guy out of prison was also strange but overall I enjoyed it and would watch it again
No sympathy.......2008-01-01
Little Children is directed by Todd Field, who also directed In The Bedroom, and in common with In The Bedroom, it is a slow burning and emotionally charged film. It's the story of two frustrated parents, neither of whom work, and both of whom are married to rich and successful spouses who play little part in their lives or those of their respective children. Just as was the case with In The Bedroom, there is a feeling of Greek tragedy as the sexual passion between Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson reaches its seemingly inevitable (and unsurprising) denouement.
However, it is not the awful predictability of the film that destroys it so much as the fatal flaws in the characterisation. Both Winslet and Wilson live dull, unfulfilled lives, but do nothing about it, and indeed even seem to conspire to prolong the situation. Meanwhile, their partners, the de facto enemy, are too caricatural (Jennifer Connelly as the archetypal power hungry ball-breaking American career woman) or simply too absent (Gregg Edelmann as the management conultant with a slightly disturbing line in perversion) for us to really care at all. This quartet are universally unloveable and unconvincing.
Field also tacks on a sideshow involving the neighbourhood flasher, ultimately one of the more appealing members of the cast, and his disturbing vigilante nemesis, but there is still a feeling that he is directing by numbers a film about "How-Middle-America-Views-Social-Misfits", so ultimately the viewer can't really get too excited about this either.
Field's intention is clearly to make a drama based around the lives of the main protagonists, but when the protagonists are as empty as this lot, who cares?
a very good film.......2007-12-14
I saw the trailer for this film several times in the cinema and kept meaning to try and see it. Failing to do so, i added this to my rental list more or less as soon as I joined up.
The film portrayed a very modern way of living, and there were stories within stories. Kate Winlet is one of my favour actresses and she does this film justice. The two main characters act really well together and are believable. I would recommend this film is you fancy a night in with something decent to watch for a change.
Great film one to watch!.......2007-09-30
At their local playground Sarah Pierse (Winslet) and Brad Adamson (Wilson) meet and, much to the envy of the other mothers Sarah spends her days with, start talking. Soon a frienship is built and soon that evolves into an affair built around setting their children up on playdates. At the same time a recently released pedophile (Haley) has moved back into their community to live with his mother (Somerville) only to find himself being harrassed by an ex-cop friend of Brad's (Emmerich). It's taken Todd Field some time to follow up his directorial debut, the strong but overrated In The Bedroom (2001) but the result of not rushing is that he's found a project to really invest himself in and made a better film this time, one that really marks him out as a talent to watch. This is an actors film and Field has assembled an excellent cast and draws fine work from all of them. There are two potential Oscar contenders here. Winslet will likely figure in the Best Actress race and though she'll probably lose to Helen Mirren's unstintingly overrated work in The Queen she certainly deserves the golden baldie. Dressing down she gives an excellent show as the housewife unhappy how her life has panned out and unable to connect with her child and makes the affair with Brad, and Sarah's thirst and need for it, believeable and compelling. Even better is Haley whose nomination (Supporting Actor) will depend on how brave the Academy is feeling. As Ronnie he walks a difficult tightrope making us sympathise with him one moment and recoil the next. Particularly strong is his reaction to his mother saying he should find a girlfriend his own age, a mournful 'I don't want a girlfriend my own age Mommy, I wish I did'. The cast is uniformly excellent though. Patrick Wilson builds on the promise of Hard Candy with a role 180 degrees away from that one, Noah Emmerich is sensational as the bitter, angry ex-cop and Jennifer Connely makes a nothing of a part play. Also worth mentioning is the ever brilliant Jane Adams whose one scene cameo it would be a crime to divulge, other than to say that it's another small masterpiece from a great actress. Field is growing as a director, Little Children looks very good indeed and has several scenes that stand out, most notably the first appearence of Ronnie and an appalling reveal in the final minutes of the film. So why not a top grade? There's one colossal miscalculation in the style that derails the films so completely every time it crops up that I very nearly didn't make it through the first act. Frequently Field drops in the voice of an omniscient narrator who seems to be reading direct from the Tom Perotta novel on which the film is based. This device (which TELLS us things we should be SEEING) is so annoying and so pretentious that I, and the rest of the audience, groaned each time it reccured. Fortunately this calms down after the first half hour but in an otherwise stunning film it's a baffling choice.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant learning for toddlers and children.......2008-02-22
My daughter is 2 and had all the baby einsteins from birth, this is even better, she loves it, i love that the cartoon characters walk and fly around real video sceans around the world, visit famous landmarks, learn about listening to music, really worth the money, then they learn loads instead of just watching baby like storys
UK DVD:
- Little House On The Prairie - Series 1
- Love Story [1971]
- Medium Season 2 [2005]
- Mon Amour
- Munich
- Numb3rs Season 2
- Once Were Warriors [1995]
- Out Of Africa [1986]
- Poldark - Series 1 - Part 2 [1975]
- Police Squad [1983]
UK DVD List
UK DVD
![Little Children [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21rZG4eC9EL.jpg)
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