Little Children

[MacGuffin]

Winslet, New Line Raising 'Children'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Actress Kate Winslet is in negotiations to topline "Little Children" for New Line Cinema.

Winslet would play the role of Sarah in the adaptation of Tom Perrotta's book, which Todd Field is set to direct. Actor/director Field, who helmed "In the Bedroom," co-wrote the "Little Children" screenplay with Perrotta, whose novel "Election" was the basis for Alexander Payne's 1999 film.

The film is set in a suburban town where perfect parents rear perfect children by day and surf Internet porn and have affairs by night. Winslet's character is a mother who has a fling with a stay-at-home dad.

Winslet starred last year in "Finding Neverland" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," for which she received her fourth Oscar nomination. Her upcoming projects include the remake of "All the King's Men" for Columbia Pictures and John Turturro's "Romance & Cigarettes" for UA/Sony.

[modage]

the premise alone makes me uncomfortable!

[Pubrick]

finally, a movie i can relate to.

[Finn]

all I can say is wooow

[MacGuffin]

Jennifer Connelly Thinks Big for 'Little Children'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Connelly is in negotiations to join Kate Winslet in "Little Children" for New Line Cinema.

Todd Field, the filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated 2001 drama "In the Bedroom," is set to direct the adaptation of the Tom Perrotta novel. Field and Perrotta are co-writing the screenplay.

The novel revolves around a group of weird, suburban characters and their relationships with children. There's a bisexual feminist addicted to Internet porn (Winslet), a stay-at-home dad who resists his wife's ambitious plans for him, an uptight supermom who schedules sex with her husband and a pedophile fresh out of prison.

Connelly, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress for "A Beautiful Mind" most recently starred in "House of Sand and Fog" and "The Hulk." Her other credits include "Requiem for a Dream" and "Mulholland Falls." She next appears in Walter Salles' "Dark Water."

[MacGuffin]

Wilson wants relationship with 'Children'

Two-time Tony Award nominee Patrick Wilson is in talks to star in writer-director Todd Field's relationship drama "Little Children" opposite four-time Oscar nominee Kate Winslet and Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly for New Line Cinema. Field was fending off considerable interest for the role of a sexy young father who is a former college quarterback. After meeting with Wilson in New York, Field was so impressed with the theater and film actor that he instantly offered him the part. Wilson, who starred in Joel Schumacher's "Phantom of the Opera" last year, also was nominated for Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his role in "Angels in America."

[I Don't Believe in Beatles]

You can watch the trailer here.

[Pubrick]

You can watch the trailer here.

jeez, i had to read the premise again to remember what the hell this movie was about.

i like non-spoilerful trailers, the more vague the better, but they hav to reveal SOMEthing, this looks like it was put together by:



famous for..

[MacGuffin]

Start by ripping up the book
Todd Field loved Tom Perrotta's novel "Little Children," but to make a movie out of it, he realized he had to wage war against it.
Source: Los Angeles Times



Todd Field didn't think there was a movie in Tom Perrotta's "Little Children." He believed the novel could be turned into an entire miniseries.

After discussions for an eight-part HBO adaptation didn't pan out, Field condensed Perrotta's book into a taut feature film, opening Oct. 6, that still included most of the book's suburban unrest plots and even some of its comic digressions — with one significant exception.

"When you adapt a novel, you have to wage war on it. After I read the galleys I told Tom, 'I really love your book. And I hate the ending. It has nothing to do with your book,' " says Field, who adapted 2001's Oscar-nominated "In the Bedroom" from an Andre Dubus short story. "And Tom said, 'I know what you mean.' I said, 'It's got to change.' " Perrotta joined in the reworking and shares with Field a screenplay credit.

Readers of Perrotta's book will know what Field excised, a deus ex machina revelation by Ronald McGorvey, who has been convicted of indecent exposure. Field was less interested in a movie about sex crimes and bombshell revelations than he was in exploring connected stories about how mothers treat their children — and their husbands.

At the film's center stands Sarah (Kate Winslet), an overeducated, bored mom who is more intrigued by stay-at-home dad Brad (Patrick Wilson) than her own daughter and Internet porn-addicted spouse.

"Sarah is a mother in waiting," says Field, who acted in "Eyes Wide Shut" and "Ruby in Paradise." "And in Brad she sees someone who is a great parent. When she sees someone that is that devoted to a child, she thinks, 'Maybe he could be that devoted to me.' "

Brad has his own maternal issues. His wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), infantilizes him, telling him he doesn't really need to subscribe to Sports Illustrated, nagging him about getting a job, pushing him to pass a bar exam he is doomed to fail. Kathy has her own knotty relationship with her mother, who is financially supporting her daughter and son-in-law.

But none of the film's mother-child pairings is as complicated or as moving as McGorvey's (Jackie Earle Haley) bond with his mother, May (Phyllis Somerville). "She is the grande dame of the matriarchy," Field says of this unconditionally dedicated parent. "She has clearly had to deal with a lot of unwanted attention."

Most of that attention comes from Larry (Noah Emmerich), a former police officer obsessed with ruining McGorvey's life.

"It's a challenging film. It's very hard," Field says. "People are either going to choose to engage the film, and have a conversation with the film, or they are not. It will polarize people."

As do so many mothers.

[MacGuffin]

Director a father figure to "Little Children"
Source: Hollywood Reporter

The domestic drama "Little Children" is just the second film directed by Todd Field, who earned writing and best picture Oscar nominations in 2002 for his debut effort, "In the Bedroom."

Having proven himself as an actor, writer and director, the talented triple-threat gives the adjective "single-minded" new meaning. Field this week accompanied his new film to the Toronto International Film Festival, where its star, Kate Winslet, earned raves for her performance as a brainy stay-at-home mom who has an affair with a fellow parent, played by Patrick Wilson. The R-rated film opens October 6 via New Line.

So what makes Field, 42, such a singular sensation?

= He's an actor. Woody Allen gave Field his first film role in 1987's "Radio Days," and Victor Nunez cast him as Ashley Judd's romantic leading man in 1993's "Ruby in Paradise." Like many actors, Field's emotions run close to the surface; after the first screening of "Bedroom" at Sundance, he broke down as he talked about losing his two mentors before they could see the film: author Andre Dubus, who wrote the short story on which the film was based, and his influential "Eyes Wide Shut" director Stanley Kubrick. Field's experience makes him a brilliant actor's director.

= He's stubborn. Very few people have gone up against Harvey Weinstein and gotten their way. After Miramax Films picked up "Bedroom," then-Miramax head Weinstein recommended cuts. But even though Field had earned little money on the film, he didn't move on to an acting job. Instead, he guarded his print with his life. Weinstein was not pleased, but when many critics hailed "Bedroom," Miramax pulled out the stops on an Oscar campaign. The film won the New York Film Critics prize for best first film and five Oscar nominations. During production on "Children," when New Line worried that Field was making Winslet too plain, Field stood firm. "She comes off as too unlikable," the studio told him. "I said, I know, isn't it great?" he recalls. "They gave me just enough rope to hang myself."

= He's a writer. After "Bedroom," Field hung his hat at DreamWorks, where he felt protected by former New Line executive Michael De Luca. While agencies and studios were sending Field small-town family dramas, for eight months he and De Luca developed the screenplay "Time Between Trains," a Civil War-era biopic of the great stage actor Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. After De Luca left DreamWorks, Field says "the response was, 'Who cares about a dead actor?"' Steven Spielberg himself delivered the news that DreamWorks wouldn't finance the expensive period epic. "How can you get someone to put $50 million-$80 million on a movie that has no explosions?" Field says. "I can't argue with that. It was partly my own naivete saying, I can make whatever I want to make."

= He never gives up. Because he didn't own the rights to the Booth project, Field moved on to "Little Children," a Tom Perrotta novel sent to him in galley form by Bonafide Prods.' Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger. The "Little Miss Sunshine" producers had a long relationship with the novelist dating back to "Election." Field immediately responded to the book about several suburban families, especially liking its "intimate observational prose," he says. But he initially envisioned an eight-hour HBO-style miniseries.

With the New York Times Book Review giving front-page praise to the novel, producer Scott Rudin also was throwing big money at Perrotta. Field desperately tried to pitch his idea to HBO, but he couldn't in good conscience ask Perrotta to give up the Rudin deal. Finally willing to treat the project as a conventional two-hour movie, Field accompanied it to Paramount but backed out when Rudin refused to give him final cut. Field's then-agent, Endeavor's John Lesher, told him that the only way to get the project away from Rudin was to find it another home. Rudin agreed to give the movie back if someone else would match his rich offer. New Line Cinema finally did.

= He likes creating characters. Field and Perrotta holed up in a Boston hotel room for a month and hammered out a first draft. "I'm not interested in suburbia," Field says. "It's boring. It's been done to death. I saw 'The Swimmer' and 'American Beauty.' That milieu doesn't interest me. I was interested in these people. Somehow I had to suck the blood out of Tom's book and have something happen that could be meaningful anywhere. Parental anxiety interests me. These are archetypal dynamics. I had to figure out how to frame them."

Using Perrotta's omniscient narrator was one answer; Field watched movies that he admired with third-person voice narration, like Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon." Comedy was another. "Humor is based on one thing," Field says. "Pain. That's why we like the Three Stooges. Pain is funny. This is satirical melodrama. Not black comedy, not drama, not ironic. It's satirical like Thackeray."

= And he likes finding the right actors to play them. Field says actors are the audience's route into "Children." "I was trying to dramatize these characters in such a way that they're not likable, but the audience gets involved with them," he says. Wilson plays an immature househusband with a roving eye, and Jennifer Connelly is his dominating, careerist wife. The other key roles are a paroled sex offender, played sympathetically by Jackie Earle Haley ("Breaking Away") in his first major role in 27 years, and his doting mother, played by veteran theater actress Phyllis Somerville.

= He likes accidents. When Somerville "walked in and read with me alone," recalls Field, she performed a pivotal scene when her son asks her what she loves about him. "I thought, She's so good. So I threw her a curveball. I kept asking, What else? She got the part, and what she said wound up in the movie."

= He listens to his wife. Based in Maine, Serena Rathbun is a forthright woman who backs her husband all the way. After 10 years of watching Field enjoy making shorts and showing them to his friends, she pushed him into directing. So Field enrolled in the AFI's directing program in 1992. "She told me, 'Do what you want to do. Don't get distracted,"' Field says. Rathbun encourages Field to keep searching for the right answers to things that aren't working. On the "Children" script, she and Field figured out a vital missing scene one night while they were in bed.

= He loves editing. Finding the movie in the editing room is half the battle for Field. "I figure it out there," he says. "I have no idea what it is when I start."

= He frets about the details. All directors are control freaks to some degree, and Field is no exception. He fusses and worries and drives many people around him crazy. "He thinks he knows more than everyone else," says one producer who worked with Field as an actor on 2000's "Stranger Than Fiction." But clearly, directing is his medium. Although Berger and Yerxa are the producers of "Children," they understood that getting out of Field's way was the only way to go.

"He carries the weight of everything on his shoulders," one source close to the production says. "He makes the movie in his head and sweats and bleeds for it. He's absolutely fully committed to what he's doing. How to achieve what he's trying to do is the only thing he cares about. He's wedded to actualizing his vision. He's one complicated dude."

[MacGuffin]

Winslet and Wilson Have Little Children

There are thousands if not millions of actors who would love to have the careers of Kate Winslet or Patrick Wilson. Both actors have made many strong choices to get to where they are now, which is starring together in Little Children, the second movie from Todd Field (In the Bedroom), adapted from Tom Perrotta's novel about suburban lives that become intertwined when their characters have an affair.

ComingSoon.net talked to the two actors, both at the top of their game in what could potentially be a controversial film due to its running subplot about a convicted sex offender living in their neighborhood. The interview told us a lot about the relationship between the actors, whose playful banter is quite entertaining.

ComingSoon.net: Patrick, it's so nice to finally see you with a woman closer to your own age.
Patrick Wilson: What's wrong with you? What are you talking about? You've never seen me with a woman NOT my own age!

CS: How about your co-stars in "Hard Candy" and "Phantom of the Opera"?
Wilson: Oh, well that's true. It's legal in Europe. (laughing)

CS: Kate, starting with the obvious, what first attracted you to this movie and role?
Kate Winslet: The script. It was absolutely the script. The script was fantastic. To me, it was very, very real about being human and life and parenting... and Todd [Field]. You know I had admired him for a long time, and he was asking me to play this incredible, challenging role. And you know frankly, you'd have to be some kind of seriously crazy person to say "no". So it was all that. I just absolutely loved it. I mean, I always try to go into reading a script with a completely open mind. I never have kind of like a career agenda, you know. I don't go, "And for my next trick, I will do blah blah". So this was just an amazing, amazing opportunity and I was very, very, very happy to be asked.

CS: And of course, Patrick, you got to be in a movie with Kate, so that's enough reason to do it.
Wilson: Yes.
Winslet: A nightmare!

CS: But seriously, now that you're playing roles your own age, how did you find this script... or did it find you?
Wilson: Well, I had heard they were doing it. This wasn't one of those scripts that was being bandied around Hollywood. So many times I get a script and it's like, "Well, that one's been around for a long time, been trying to get it made, here's all the people that have turned it down." (laughing). That's what happens with me guys. Not her. Me. (laughing)
Winslet: No, that happens to everyone!
Wilson: I didn't know the book. I had heard, "Hey, Todd Field wants to meet you and Kate is attached to it." Not like I was gonna turn it down. It would have to be a really terrible script and part, but I kept hearing it was a great part, so I said, "Can I get the script?" and he said "No, but he wants to meet with you." It actually took a lot of pressure off, because I didn't have to go in there, having read the script and go "Okay, here's my thoughts on the character." Because I hate that. I like things to sort of sit with me. I don't feel like I can blurt out how I'd do the character right away in the first meeting. It's a process. Anyway, so I met Todd, we talked, we had a great time, had a couple of drinks, and he gave me the script that night. Woke up the next morning, read it over a cup of coffee, called him and said, "Look, this is such a great, great part. I would love to do it". And he said, "Great, you're the only guy I wanted for this!" So, like I'm gonna turn it down? (laughing) I've got to say it was a pretty seamless process for me, and that's a real tribute to Todd and to New Line really, because I know they probably could have gotten someone a lot more famous.
Winslet: But can I say something on that you might not know about? Just that you were my idea.
Wilson: I know. I heard that actually, but I didn't want to say that while you were in the room, because if it wasn't, I'd feel like really weird. (Laughing). She really likes me.
Winslet: No, listen... shut up. I had read the script and loved it and responded as I did, then I immediately had a telephone dialogue with Todd—which actually last night I was on the phone to Todd and I said "Doesn't it feel like we've never stopped making this movie" because we have still carried on having all of these conversations--but he said, "Who do you think we should get for Brad?" I said, "Well, do you know who Patrick Wilson is?" and he said "He was in 'Angels in America' wasn't he?" and I said "Yes, he was." He hadn't seen "Angels" at that point. I said "Well, you have to see it. He's absolutely perfect" (to Patrick) and if you don't mind me saying this, "a relative unknown in terms of the bigger movie market."
Wilson: G*d D*mn! (laughing)
Winslet: You know what I mean.
Wilson: Come on! Hey, I'm no Johnny Depp.
Winslet: Which to me was very, very important, because, you know, it just was. I just felt that it should be somebody who was absolutely brilliant at what they do and didn't come with the baggage of a past movie history. So we talked about that and dah, dah, dah, dah dah, and then Patrick came along and that was all great, and he said "yes".

CS: How do you think Sarah is different from the other roles that you've played, since they're all so different?
Winslet: Well, first of all, I'm glad you say that, because I do try and really mix it up just because it's great to get the opportunity to just try out loads of different things and play different people. She's just completely different. I mean, she's nothing like Clementine, she's nothing like Marianne Dashwood, she's certainly nothing like... (noticeable pause)... Rose in "Titanic."
Wilson: Booze... booze...
Winslet: Shut up. (laughing)
Wilson: There should be a drinking game... every time she says "Rose"... (more laughing) We're very serious.
Winslet: I hate you. (laughing) I've played mothers before, but I've played mothers who have been decent mothers. I've never played somebody who was struggling with that role. I'm not like that myself, so it was hard to play somebody who had qualities as a parent that I did not respect at all. But everything about her is different from all the other parts. She's lonely, she's lost. I think that's the only one similarity actually is the sense of yearning and looking for something more. I think there are some characters that I've played who have that as some kind of common denominator, even though they've maybe had a different accent and lived in a different period of time. I loved the journey that she went on and I loved the sort of self-realization and this huge cathartic moment of just realizing how much she's basically been f***ing up. Even though she's been looking for that something else in her life, until she meets Brad, she doesn't even really know what it is, and even that, she doesn't quite know what's really going to happen. It was an amazing opportunity, and it was a hard movie to make just because there was always a lot to do every day and the budget, it wasn't small but it wasn't huge. It just meant that we really had to cover a lot of ground and stay on our toes, and frankly, know exactly what was going to be required of us every day. But I loved that. I love to be as busy as possible at work, because sometimes you know that doesn't happen and you're in the trailer for three hours while they're doing lighting setup and that we would virtually be carrying film equipment up the hill ourselves to catch the light at the top. And it was great to have that. I just love that experience, the more independent experience.

CS: There's already a lot of Oscar buzz on your performance in this. You've been nominated for an Oscar four times, at a certain point, do you think it's fine just to be nominated and get a nice gown for the ceremony or do you really care about winning?
Winslet: Certainly I don't think ANY of those things! (laughing) Look, I seem to find myself saying this a lot at the moment, but I don't read reviews, I just specifically don't. It's sort of a means of survival for me, but I don't do that, so I'm in this kind of state of blissful ignorance at the moment, which is great. The one thing that I will say is that I am unbelievably proud of my nominations. I am really proud, and I love the fact that that happened to me by the time I was thirty, and I can't believe that that happened. It's like I never expected that, I never planned for that, it's an incredible honor. And being at the Academy Awards, it's being at the Academy Awards, it's just an extraordinary thing to experience, and it's something that as a teenager I would watch and on TV thinking "Wow God, I wonder if I'll ever get to go there?" You know, just that sense of wonder and it's absolutely amazing. But in terms of what happens with this film, I mean, who can tell? I just have absolutely no idea, which is great.

CS: But it must be nice if you get nominated and people then want to go see the movie.
Winslet: If people are saying good things about this film, if there's a very positive buzz around it, that's fantastic. I mean it's wonderful for us, because we did work so hard, and we both do really feel very proud of the film, we love it and are really enjoying sort of talking about it which is just great because you can't possibly run out of things to say about this film. There's always something different that will kind of come to you about it. Anyway, so I'd say we're having a pretty good time.

CS: Why do you think Brad is attracted to his friend Larry. He obviously doesn't like him at the beginning but then starts hanging with him.
Wilson: Oh that's interesting. Well, Larry makes him feel good, or I should say Larry holds Brad up on such a high regard that if anything, he probably feels like his role in high school, which was the quarterback, the king, I guess. But to be honest with you, I don't think that Brad particularly likes Larry. I mean, he even says, "He's okay". I mean I think so many people in Brad's life are like that. He barely even recognizes Larry, like in the truck. It's not like it's, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while!" So I don't think it's that he particularly likes Larry. I just think it's that Larry is so forceful and at that point in Brad's life, Brad will kind of go anywhere that someone says "Come on with me". I don't think that Brad's strong enough to go, "Now wait a second." Ultimately, that's really what he finds in Larry. I don't think he ever really particularly likes Larry, but the fact that Larry has such drive, it pulls him along. I think he goes with it.

CS: Do you think Brad really cares about the whole pedophile in the neighborhood issue?
Wilson: I think so. I think so, because if there's one thing that Brad's good at, it's being a dad. Would he have joined the committee if Larry hadn't sort of showed him everything? I don't know if he's that...I don't see Brad scouring the internet looking at the pedophiles in the neighborhood. That's just not the type of person he is. I think he's just a much simpler person, but I definitely think he cares. It's out of ignorance I guess, not out of arrogance that he probably wasn't as involved in the committee before.

CS: As far as the thematic element of the movie about how the whole neighborhood lives in fear of this guy in their midst and how it reflects the world we're living in today. Can you talk about that a bit?
Wilson: Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. I think it's certainly true. Speaking specifically about the most sinister plot point, I guess, all that we know about the character of Ronnie is that he apparently exposed himself to someone and he's a convicted sex offender, child molester, but you don't know the extent of it. It really is sort of remarkable how, not only the community but also audience members, will say "So about the pedophile..." and then you sort of say, "Okay, hold on." It's kind of the whole point of that story line here. It's really what did he do, what do you think he did, what's the impression of what he did? It's even different in the book, and I think it's no great mystery that audiences have the same perception of the character as we do, not to excuse any of that, but you can't help but assume the worst, because that's sort of the way the media works. I don't know if that's really any different than the Salem Witch Trials. I think it's certainly a remarkable sort of similarity that viewers to this movie have the exact same reaction that we do as a society.

CS: As a mother, I'm curious about your take on that whole plot point.
Winslet: Well initially, I was hesitant to read the script. I knew it was being sent to me. I knew what the story was about. It had been described to me, and my agent had said, "Now just so as you know, there is a character in it who is a convicted sex offender. He isn't referred to as a pedophile." The truth of it is, if Ronnie had done anything worse than what the story tells you that he'd done, he would have still been in prison, he wouldn't have actually made it into the story. I read the script and was absolutely amazed at how brilliantly that part of the story was handled. It was a beautifully written part, in the sense that there is no moment where you don't think, "Oh my God. This man would do anything not to have this psycho-sexual disorder." Now I've never seen that before, and I've never felt that much sympathy for somebody. I mean you just feel so sad for him, and that's down to Jackie's brilliant performance and how Tom and Todd decided to handle that plot point. But as a mother, how do I feel about that kind of person? I'd happily kill them. (laughing)
Wilson: That's... succinct. (laughing)
Winslet: Well, I would!

CS: Patrick, how did your cameo in "Running with Scissors" come about?
Wilson: Honestly this is the truth, and I've never had this phone call before and I might not ever get one again, but Ryan Murphy, the director and adapter, called me and said "Hey, I was just looking for a Patrick Wilson type and figured I'd start with you" (laughing) and he goes, "It's teeny. I know you've never done a cameo before. It's a really small role but I would love to have you, it's just one scene with Brian Cox."
Winslet: What an absolutely brilliant thing to say!
Wilson: And I was like, "Hey man, if you can work it out, two days with Brian Cox!" Not bad work, so yeah that's funny.

Little Children opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, October 6, and probably will expand to other cities in the coming weeks.

[modage]

ComingSoon.net: Patrick, it's so nice to finally see you with a woman closer to your own age.
Patrick Wilson: What's wrong with you? What are you talking about? You've never seen me with a woman NOT my own age!

i really hope he is kidding, otherwise he is a PSYCHO.

[polkablues]

From Chud.com:

REVIEW: LITTLE CHILDREN
10.01.06
By Devin Faraci

Walking out of Todd Field's adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel Little Children (Perotta collaborated on the screenplay), I found myself having a mental debate – had I just seen a great film or a Great film? Little Children is bursting with fantastic performances, filled with great and often hilarious dialogue, structured with layer upon layer of resonant meaning and shot with gorgeous, masterful camerawork. The film works on every single level, but it's going to take multiple viewings to decide if it earns that capital G – mainly because it will take multiple viewings to fully examine everything Little Children has to offer.

What's most impressive about Little Children is the way that it maintains its odd, almost quirky tone throughout – Field finds a perfect balance on the fulcrum of drama and satire, all the while slowly and deliberately ratcheting up the tension until you find yourself in the strange position of sitting on the edge of your seat, laughing. The movie is filled with characters that could be caricatures and gives them depth and treats them with humanity. That doesn't mean Field is kind to them – the movie is unsparing in exposing their flaws and hypocrisies and stupidity, but it's just as rigorous in presenting them as complete people.

Kate Winslet is Sarah, once an independent feminist woman and artist who has now found herself trapped in suburbia with a husband who is growing more distant by the day and a daughter she just can't relate to. She brings the child to the local park every day, where her own shortcomings as a mom are highlighted by the other mothers – uber-soccer moms who strictly schedule their children's lives, with snacks served with military precision. Sarah, of course, tends to forget the snack.

One day the Prom King (Patrick Wilson) shows up with his son. He had once frequented the park and his handsome, manly presence freaks out the other moms – knowing he'll be there they need to put on make-up and dress their best, even though they never talk to him. He's known as the Prom King to the moms, but his name is actually Brad, and he's a stay-at-home dad who's studying for his third attempt at the Bar Exam. His continued failure makes him feel inadequate, which is compounded by his driven, successful documentary filmmaker wife, played by Jennifer Connelly. Sarah ends up talking to Brad just to show up the other moms, and they soon become friends, mutual outsiders in suburbia. And as time goes on they also begin an affair.

Meanwhile, Brad has been shirking his Bar studies and ends up hanging out with Noah Emmerich's Larry, an ex-cop who is part of a night football league and also the leader and sole member of the neighborhood committee dedicated to protecting local kids from recently paroled sex offender Ronny (ex-Bad News Bear Jackie Earle Haley), who is trapped at home with his mother, battling his own impulses. Larry has a dark past of his own, one that drives him to become completely obsessed with harassing and exposing Ronny to the point of tragedy.

Looking back at those two paragraphs I realize this film doesn't sound funny at all. Some of the humor in the film comes from the ironic and omniscient narration, delivered in a wonderfully stentorian tone. But much of the humor comes from the delicately realized absurdities of real life, often serving as a counterpoint to the growing sense of dread Field cultivates.

It's no exaggeration to say that Little Children has the best performances of the year. Kate Winslet is getting the most buzz from her astonishing work playing a bad mother we can love and root for, a role that is probably going to earn her an Oscar nomination. Patrick Wilson, who has been slowly making his name with things like Angels in America and Hard Candy, gives Brad a perfect tinge of sadness while Emmerich presents Larry as a monster in almost the Universal Pictures sense – he's destructive and terrible and yet, in the end, sympathetic.

Which brings us to Jackie Earle Haley as Ronny, the standout performance in a film filled with standout performances. The work that Haley does here is, without any doubt, deserving of a Supporting Actor nomination... and win. Ronny isn't whitewashed, but he is layered. Ronny's crime wasn't sexual abuse but exposing himself to minors; when he's first introduced, coming to the town pool to cool off in a heat wave, you're torn between feeling bad for him when everyone freaks and feeling creeped out as he swims under the water amid the naked legs of all the children. The movie – and Haley – never quite lets you decide on where you stand with him, and it's brilliant. We see that Ronny has urges that are sick, and we also see that he's fighting them, and sometimes sublimating them in truly horrific ways. In one scene he goes on a date with a mentally fragile woman (ever-typecast as the crazy Jane Adams) and does something so gross and so horrible that it becomes easy to hate him. But Field and Haley won't allow that to happen, and Jackie Earle really gets an assist from his screen mom, Phyllis Somerville, the only person who still sees the human being inside the pervert.

The conflict between Larry and Ronny mirrors and underpins everything else in the film – these characters struggle against their situations and stations in life, but also against themselves, against their own flaws and weaknesses, but most of all their own fears. Larry drowns the neighborhood in fliers with Ronny's mug shot, creating an atmosphere of exaggerated terror, a situation all too familiar to anyone who follows modern politics. Little Children is about how giving in to these fears – whether they be fears of being trapped in a life you never wanted, fears of losing your masculinity, fears of mysterious predators in our midst, fears of your own uncontrolled urges – can lead to personal destruction. And how facing those fears can, sometimes, lead to redemption.

Little Children may draw comparisons to Desperate Housewives – it's a suburban setting where manicured lawns and rigidly scheduled play dates mask deep dysfunction. And there's a voice over. But that's all surface – the TV show is a black comedy as opposed to a satire, and the characters are each more buffoonish than the last. Plus Desperate Housewives could never hope to match the raw intelligence of Little Children – it's a movie that engages you emotionally but also intellectually. Perrotta and Field don't shy away from asking the audience to actually think about who these characters are to consider why they're doing what they're doing. Field doesn't rely on sweeping strings to give you an emotional cue, and his camera doesn't manipulate you into feeling certain ways. This will annoy some audiences, who will feel confused by who they should or shouldn't like and who would prefer a film that takes them by the hand and spells everything out.

I still haven't decided if Little Children is capital G great, but if it is, it's very much due to that aspect, the way that Field treats his audience as literate and engaged viewers. Little Children is a movie that aims high and more often than not achieves that altitude. Field and company have crafted a film that entertains as well as speaks to us about ourselves and the world we live in. Too few films bother to try that, and even fewer succeed. Little Children is one of the best films of the year.

9.5 out of 10

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Walking out of Todd Field's adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel Little Children (Perotta collaborated on the screenplay), I found myself having a mental debate – had I just seen a great film or a Great film?

it was a good film, (with a lowercase g).  i liked it more than In The Bedroom, but i'm not sure if it was actually a better film, or if it's because kate winslet is infinitely more watchable than nick stahl.  either way, there was lots to admire here but it wasnt earth shattering.   one of the strangest (and most annoying) things in the film is the way its narrated like a book telling you what characters are feeling when you can clearly see what is happening.  kate winslet is awesome though (but not a bisexual) and the sex offendor was SO convincing to look at him was to be creeped out.  jennifer connelly unfortunately is practically a non-character in the film, and is really only in it for a few minutes. and even then (like her character) usually at a distance.  for the suburban angst set of films this is probably one of the more interesting ones miles better than We Don't Live Here Anymore, but still, eh. 

[polkablues]

jennifer connelly unfortunately is practically a non-character in the film, and is really only in it for a few minutes.

That might be the greatest crime of all.  Worse than murder, even.