“Little Children” is something of a head-scratcher. A time-release head-scratcher. And that’s a good thing, though it may not seem so right away.
The movie – adapted by director Todd Field (“In the Bedroom”) and Tom Perrotta (“Election”) from his novel – plays like a suburban infidelity satire for the longest time. Its tone registers somewhere between the cartoonishness of “American Beauty” and “The Graduate’s” more natural ennui.
But “Little Children” also has a quality all its own, equivalent to a sense of floating through life. But after things take some rather nightmarish turns, deep emotional charges go off, and the film concludes on a note that will likely make you wonder whether you’ve just seen a snide critique of middle-class values or an unforgiving argument in their favor.
I’m pretty sure it’s the former – but only after more thought and longer conversations than most movies inspire. I also concluded that the film is a lot richer than it appeared while I was watching.
So how come it didn’t feel like all that much? Maybe it’s hard to get past the notion that, true to its title, “Little Children” is about a bunch of big babies.
As an ironic narrator explains early on, Kate Winslet’s protagonist, Sarah Pierce, may have an adorable young daughter, Lucy, and a nice, comfortable house, but she feels like a stranger to everything.
Sarah’s a nice person, though; she gets the full Winslet empathy wash, from her deepest depressions to her flashing ecstasies. And so is Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), who takes his own little boy to the park and community pool, where Sarah starts spending her summer afternoons with them.
Brad’s evenings are devoted to reliving college glories with a police football team – when he should be studying for the bar exam, which he’s already flunked twice. He and his documentary-maker wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), pretty much live off of handouts from her wealthy mother.
Brad’s nice, though, in a slightly vacant, casually attractive sort of way. And he and Sarah inevitably have a nice affair.
But even though this coupling is the main story, the one most people will be talking about is that of the sex offender.
Played with unalloyed creepiness yet effective poignancy by Jackie Earle Haley (last seen by most as a kid in the original “Bad News Bears” and “Breaking Away”), just-paroled Ronnie McGorvey.
Ronnie becomes the focus of all the frustrated neighbors’ fears and bullying impulses, even though it’s known that he never went further than exposing himself to children.
Through him, the movie – sometimes boldly – dares to ask: How much do we get off on our own sense of justifiable repulsion?
“Little Children” | *** 1/2 RATING
R for sex, nudity, violence, language, children in jeopardy|2 hours, 10 minutes|SUBURBAN DRAMA|Directed by Todd Field; written by Field and Tom Perrotta; from Perrotta’s book; photography by Antonio Calvache; starring Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich, Phyllis Somerville|Opens today at Landmark’s Mayan Theatre.
