Little Children
Sarah (Kate Winslet) was made for better things: married to a jackass in the corporate branding business, the grad-school dropout is a stay-at-home mom to her adorable but demanding little daughter Lucy. At the local playground, she is forced to partake of the inane gossip of a trio of fellow mums—but their routine is broken by the sudden return of Brad (Patrick Wilson), a hunky house-husband they've dubbed the Prom King.
Despite being married to gorgeous Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) and dad to cherubic Aaron, Brad is going through his own malaise. Struggling to pass the bar exam, he is distracted by the lure of a touch-football night league. In an effort to scandalize the meddling mother hens, one day Sarah approaches Brad in the playground…
Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta.
Member Reviews
upon second viewing - a new appreciation - sooz
i saw this years ago when it first came out so this was a rewatch for me. i think i probably like it better this time around and that may be a common reaction. we are apt to get more out of a moive the second time around. we catch more of the nuance which adds so much depth to a storyline. this time around i find myself enthralled by the narrative - the voice over - and i think i would like to read the book. i can only imagine how heartbreaking the characters are presented in the novel.One of the best of 2006 - eoguy
You don't want to like Kate Winslet, she's insecure and self-centered in this film of a mother who lets her temptations get the best of her. It's a tribute to her acting that she makes you care for her at all. Patrick Wilson is also excellent as the very appealing "Mr. Mom" who should be studying for his bar exam, but shirks it for a sexual romp. And then there's his pitiful football buddy who at first seems to be doing the community a service, but later you realize is only hiding his own failings. The child molester and his mother are the most chilling people of all. This is a disturbing, thought provoking, drama that does have a scene that is very hard to believe but because you've become so invested in the choices and mistakes every character makes, you'll stay on the edge of your seat with the film til the end. Todd Field, director of "In the Bedroom" makes you see all their flaws and yet care terribly about what will become of them.Growing up - ClarkNova
This movie may annoy some people because of details like the voiceover and the fact that it may seem closer to a book than a movie at times. However, I like a good story and I am not too annoyed by these things.
I think there is a great quality to this movie. It is a story about adults that behave like children. They differ in how they handle their inner child. One, which suffers from mental sickness, can’t handle it so in the end, he must kill it metaphorically. The others grow up. What was really interesting was that the director makes you feel sympathy for the protagonists to which you may identify at least in part on some second-level if you have children. Even if you are not like the characters, you may almost find justifications to their childish actions in the name of some lost live or something, but in the end, like them, you realize that they have to be adults because they are. It is in that sense that the movie is good. The director makes you live the trip that gets them from children to adults so you think differently from the beginning to the end of the movie, as if you had grown up yourself.
Some said that the “happy” ending was not faithful to a book I didn’t read. I think it is a deliberate choice of the director for his own agenda, a statement that it is never too late to stop being a child, or change. It is more an affirmation about what it is to be acting as an adult than an happy ending, to me. It is an invitation to be an adult instead of a child living in idealizations that prevents you to change. The future will be as grey as the past anyway. Seeking perfect white is for old children.
Member Reviews
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upon second viewing - a new appreciation - sooz
i saw this years ago when it first came out so this was a rewatch for me. i think i probably like it better this time around and that may be a common reaction. we are apt to get more out of a moive the second time around. we catch more of the nuance which ...One of the best of 2006 - eoguy
You don't want to like Kate Winslet, she's insecure and self-centered in this film of a mother who lets her temptations get the best of her. It's a tribute to her acting that she makes you care for her at all. Patrick Wilson is also excellent as the very appealing ...Growing up - ClarkNova
This movie may annoy some people because of details like the voiceover and the fact that it may seem closer to a book than a movie at times. However, I like a good story and I am not too annoyed by these things.
I think there is a great quality to ...