This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 5:30 pm and is filed under Drama, L. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Todd Field
Starring: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Gregg Edelman, Noah Emmerich, Jackie Earle Haley, Phyllis Somerville
Little Children is a compelling, well-acted and well-written drama that offers a haunting, voyeuristic glimpse into ‘ordinary’ lives, showing us that no life is actually ordinary at all. It focuses on characters and internal motivations and does so very well. I think there is an attempted literary connection to Madame Bovary, but since I have not read it, and because there are limits on what I will do to write a good movie review, I can’t help you with that.
Little Children focuses on suburban residents living miserable lives of quiet desperation while in ‘happy marriages’ with feelings and emotions that none of us think we should have, but all of us do. They all seem to have secrets and pain that they try to hide from each other, and from themselves. All these issues, in what should be a happy carefree subdivision, are thick with irony that even I can catch. It is strong throughout, but the ending did not seem consistent with the characters.
This is a very good film with strong characters and a subtle story that gently draws you in, but the box should have a ‘serious drama fans only’ label, since it will not hold a lot of interest for action fans and comedy lovers. The ending could have been better, perhaps, but it is no mystery that it was nominated for three Oscars, but there is a mystery in why it didn’t win any.
