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A Well-Acted, Intricately Plotted Film Set in American Suburbia

Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley received Academy Award nominations for their performances in Little Children (2006), which also got an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay (Todd Field and Tom Perrotta). The movie was based on Perrotta's best-selling novel and directed by Field (In the Bedroom). The film is a peculiar mix of drama and satire.


Little Children takes place entirely in a family-oriented, affluent suburb of Boston. Field and Perrotta created a fictional community that looks as though it would be a most desirable place to live. But as we get to know the residents, many of them turn out to be unlikable, and the few with whom we feel empathy seem unfulfilled and anxious.

Kate Winslet is terrific as Sarah Pierce, the movie's most interesting character. Unhappily married, bored by her duties as a stay-at-home mom, and too intellectual to connect with the neighborhood's other women, Sarah gets into an affair. But the filmmakers found fresh and quirky ways of presenting this material so it doesn't feel overly familiar. Also, Winslet and her handsome co-star Patrick Wilson have good screen chemistry together, including in the erotic scenes.

Counterpointing Sarah's adulterous affair is an unsettling plot thread involving Ronald James McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley), a creepy pedophile who is released from prison and comes back into the community to live with his mother.

A disgruntled ex-cop goes on a personal crusade against McGorvey, and the film ultimately brings everything together in a satisfying ending.

A Pair of Memorable Scenes

Little Children has several scenes that stick in the mind, and perhaps the best of these is where Sarah goes to a women's book-club meeting that is discussing Flaubert's 1857 novel Madame Bovary. Although most of those present seem to want to try to understand what Flaubert was getting at, one woman keeps stating her opinion that the novel's title character is a pathetic slut because she cheats on her husband. But Sarah counters that Madame Bovary is trapped in a life of misery, and there's something beautiful and heroic in her rebellion against it. The scene allows us to see that Sarah has the same superficial romantic ideals as Flaubert's flawed, tragic heroine.

Another memorable scene takes place on a sweltering summer afternoon at the municipal swimming pool. The pedophile McGorvey shows up there, puts on snorkeling gear and begins swimming around among all the kids. The crowd becomes frenzied, and the pool is cleared faster than if a great white shark had been discovered in it. There's no question that McGorvey must be treated as a threat, but the community seems to want to make him into a scapegoat for all their troubles.

An Artful Use of Voice-Over Narration

An important part of Little Children consists of the words spoken in voice-over by an unnamed, omniscient male narrator. That's Will Lyman, and if he sounds familiar, it's probably because you've heard him on BMW commercials or PBS programs like Frontline and Nova. His narration helps establish the film's ironic tone and enables us to keep the movie's characters at a comfortable distance.

Other Key Characters and the Actors Who Play Them

Sarah's sexual partner in her adulterous affair is Brad Adamson, a hunky former college football quarterback who has failed the bar exam twice. Patrick Wilson (The Phantom of the Opera, Angels in America) is perfectly cast in the role of Brad, who is vacuous and seems unsuited to being anything other than a stay-at-home dad.

Brad's wife Kathy is portrayed by Jennifer Connelly, and again the casting is perfect. Kathy is extremely physically attractive, but her attempt to get her husband to become a high-paid lawyer badly strains her marriage. Connelly is a fine actress, but this role doesn't require much of her.

Brad is on a touch football team with an ex-cop named Larry Hedges, well played by Noah Emmerich (Cellular, Frequency). Larry has been embittered ever since he had to leave the police force after a traumatic incident, and his way of expressing his frustration with his situation is by harassing the pedophile McGorvey.

DVD Details

Below I've listed the details for the DVD containing Little Children, which provides no bonus materials of any kind.

Release Date: May 1, 2007
Widescreen (2.35:1), Color
Feature Film Run Time: 2 hours 17 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Strong Sexuality and Nudity, Language and Some Disturbing Content
English 5.1 Dolby Digital
English 2.0 Stereo Surround
English Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles