LITTLE CHILDREN

US, 2006, 137 minutes, Colour.
Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich, Gregg Edelman, Phyllis Somerville, Raymond J. Barry, Jane Adams, Ty Simpkins, Sadie Goldstein.
Directed by Todd Field.

Five years earlier writer-director, Todd Field, received great acclaim and Oscar nominations for his controversial drama, In the Bedroom, a story of a family whose son is murdered and how vengeance leads to further violence. Once again, he focuses on family, two families, but the issue is not principally violence, though this is a key element, rather it is commitment and betrayal and the testing of love. This time little children are involved.

The title could also refer to the two central characters who have not fully grown up and matured.

However, the context of this drama is one of the abuse of children. The film opens with the release from prison of a man who served a sentence for exposing himself to children. He returns to live with his mother – to the great alarm of the parents who live in the comfortable, middle-class suburb. When he goes swimming one day in the local pool, there is heightened alarm and the police are called. As the narrative progresses, the abuser’s fate is entwined in that of the principal character. Jackie Earle Haley (the triggerman-chauffeur in All the King’s Men) gives a chillingly fascinating performance.

The focus is on a mother in a loveless marriage. She is played by Kate Winslett. She has an often obstreperous young daughter. As she sits daily in the part with other mothers and listens to their gossiping, she becomes aware of a homebound father (Patrick Wilson) who has a daughter. They become friends, meeting every day with their children. This develops into an affair because the father’s wife is a busy professional documentary-maker.

A friend of the father is a former policeman who harasses the abuser and his mother. This, in fact, does lead to violence in a way we would not have anticipated and makes audiences think once again about criminals. The abuser admits his psychosexual condition but we see him acting grossly on a personals date. This strand of the film is a challenge as to how society should treat its misfits.

As the story progresses, the complications of the affair affect both families, especially when they have a meal together. The resolution of the film is also a challenge as to how we see emotional and moral choices.

This is the kind of suburbia that we have seen in such films as American Beauty.

1.A serious slice of life? The impact for men, for women?

2.The title, the central children, the innocence of little children? The abuse of children?

3.The Massachusetts settings, audiences identifying with the homes, the parks, the workplaces, the police force? The musical score?

4.The credibility of the plot, parents minding children, working parents, life at home? Mothers and their chatter? The shock of the kiss between Sarah and Brad? The consequences? The abuse issues, mother and son, the law, prison? Relationships and deception? The police? Internet addictions? Families? The pools at summer? Children playing? Football? The combination of all these themes effectively?

5.The abuse context, the fears of the mothers, Ronnie and his being in prison, coming out, staying with his mother, his mother caring for him? His personality? Psychological difficulties? Larry, his persecution? Ronnie and his mother, his going to swim at the pool, the pool scandal, the mothers rushing their children from the pool? Ronnie left alone?

6.Sarah, as mother, her relationship with her daughter? The brittle relationship with Richard? Seeing Richard at the office, at home, the tensions, the meals? In the park with the mothers, their all eyeing Brad? Her kissing him as a joke, getting him in on the joke? The consequences? The effect on her at home, at the park? Taking Lucy, befriending Brad’s son? The pool, the Ronnie incident? Brad and his playing football, the plan? The details of the affair? The meal with the two couples? Kathy and her suspicions? Sarah waiting with Lucy? Brad and the skateboard? The accident? Sarah and the confrontation with Ronnie, losing her daughter? Her compassion for Ronnie? Brad’s injuries, the ambulance, her going home? The delineation of her character? Insights into this kind of character?

7.Richard, the busy husband, at home, in his office, the internet pornography?

8.Brad, the slacker, the house-husband, his wife at work? In the park, with his son? The encounter with Sarah? The kiss? Its effect on him? Seeing him at home? Allegedly studying for his law exams, having failed? In the park, at the pool, spending the summer with Sarah and the children? Larry and his friendship, the football? Brad and his enjoying football more than study? The beginnings of the affair, the conduct of the affair? The football match, Larry upbraiding him for not going to the drinking session? The plan to elope, his delay, the teenagers and the skateboarding, his skills, the accident? His calling his wife?

9.Kathy, businesswoman, at home, having married Brad, looking after him? Paying for his studies? At home, the brittle marriage? Her competence, the meal with the two couples together, her suspecting what was going on? Her reaction?

10.Larry, the police force, his bravado, his persecuting Ronnie, going to his house, tormenting him? The macho football matches? Persuading Brad to play? His struggle with Ronnie’s mother, her heart attack, her death? His change of heart? Ronnie, the castration? His own life – and Ronnie’s mother taunting him about the shooting? His explanation? Where was he left at the end?

11.Ronnie, the abuse, his having served his prison term, pampered by his mother at home, her injunctions for him to be a good boy? The dating ad, his outing with the date, the meal, his talk, the car, his exposing himself, the struggle? Larry’s turning up, his mother’s heart attack, the hospital, her death? The note for him to be a good boy? His castrating himself? Sarah comforting him? Larry’s change of heart?

12.Sheila, the date, her background, with Ronnie, the meal, comfortable and uncomfortable, the pleasantness, his advance, her reaction?

13.Sarah and the book group, the reading of Madame Bovary, the discussions about Madame Bovary, the reactions of the different mothers? The personalities of the mothers, their way of life, their children, suburban? Sarah as a contemporary suburban Madame Bovary?

14.The sketch of the children, their relationship with their parents, playing together, the detail of life at home, the mutual visits? Lucy and her going with her mother, becoming lost? Sarah reunited with Lucy? The decision to go home?

15.The themes of suburbia, love and betrayal, brittle marriages? Family? The deeper themes underlying ordinary life?