Little Children

The first guest review is by my long time blogger friend, Autumn, who readily agreed to step into the fray and write a review. I offered her the choice of movies, but she insisted that I pick one. Instead, I did what Scribe and I do: I gave her a list of five movies to choose from and she picked from those.

AUTUMN'S "A LITTLE ASS IS ALL YOU NEED" REVIEW:

Little Children is one of those human experience movies where the lives of 4 different families of a sleepy little community intertwine. The first family is the Pierce family where the focus is on Sarah, the mother of 3 year old Lucy. The second family is the Adamson family where the focus is on Brad, the father of 3 year old Aaron. Both parents are in unsatisfying marriages and find unlikely companionship with each other while their spouses go to work daily. Though we don’t see the third family of Larry Hedges, we do find out that his wife and children have left him, thus affecting them. The fourth family is that of a registered sex offender, Ronnie McGorvey and his mother May. The plot of the movie thickens as Brad and Sarah’s relationship becomes increasingly involved and an affair ensues, Larry starts a neighborhood watch program because of the registered sex offender who he often harasses, and Brad joins Larry in the watch program and play together on a tag football night league. The climax of the movie comes as Ronnie’s mother May dies as a result of an altercation with Larry, and Brad and Sarah make moves to solidify their relationship, and Ronnie is left to struggle with the choice between "being a good boy" for his deceased mother and his pedophilia tendencies.

I wasn’t familiar with this movie at all until Green suggested it and I chose it solely on the fact that Kate Winslet had the lead role as Sarah Pierce and I've been on a Winslet kick lately. Suffice to say, I wasn’t disappointed. Winslet’s performance as a bored, over educated, unhappily married house wife is spot on. The actors in the rest of the roles Patrick Wilson (as Brad Adamson), Jennifer Connolly (as Brad’s wife), Noah Emmerich (as Larry Hedges), and Jackie Earle Haley (as Ronnie McGorvey) were all top notch. I’d even give special mention to Phyllis Somerville who portrayed May McGorvey, the mother of the registered sex offender who was outstanding. Each of the characters listed here are certainly flawed, but the portrayal of each was so suburb that you could both feel for the character at the same time you wanted to strangle them for their shortcomings.

I think what made the film enjoyable at all for me was the running themes. Stay at home parents with education living the suburban life.... struck a chord with me. Feeling trapped in a life you can't imagine no escape... I think (I hope for my sake) that this relates to everyone at some point in their lives. More importantly, I think the speaks to the human character and how unwilling we are to change even when we are unhappy in our everyday lives and ourselves. It was a thought provoking film to say the least.

The pace of the movie seemed slow at times, but I always felt like I needed to know what was going to happen next (Let's thank the anxiety provoking soundtrack for that one.) I was just waiting for the moment that would tie all these different stories together. There’s also a voice over narration that was at times annoying yet insightful. I wish that he either would have spoke more or not at all. Last, I think the nudity and sex scenes were a bit gratuitous. I know what sex is and I can take cues to make that connection. But that said, sometimes a nice male ass shot isn’t so bad for at least a little entertainment value.

***½ out of *****

GREEN'S "I WAS ONLY TRYING TO COOL OFF" REVIEW:

Since Autumn did such a good job giving you the basics of the story, I won't bother detailing it again, except to say that the story takes place in the fictional town of East Wyndham, MA.

This is one of those movies that I had bought several months ago on DVD when I too was on a Kate Winslet kick. I had just watched one of her recent films during its theatrical run and wanted to see what other films of hers I hadn't seen. However, as happens to me frequently, I bought it and put it aside to watch later, always meaning to get around to it, not that I hadn't wanted to but other stuff always kept getting priority.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, because I don't watch a lot of television and missed the trailers before and during its 2006 theatrical run. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked this movie as much as I did. I wasn't surprised that Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connolly's performances were excellent because they consistently deliver such quality work. I had seen Patrick Wilson in another movie but didn't make the connection here until much later, something I'm usually pretty good at. Jackie Earle Haley, who is more than sufficiently creepy as the pedophile, is outstanding and deserving of his Best Supporting Actor nomination.

I was impressed enough with this movie that I went out and bought Tom Perrotta's novel to see what differences there are between the book and the film, not something I often purposefully do. I was also impressed with director Todd Field's handling of this movie and story as it could have easily become too tedious and bogged down. Instead what you have by the end of the film is four fully developed stories, each fascinating in their own way.

I've always said that when the director writes or has a hand in writing the screenplay, you usually end up with a better movie because of the more personal knowledge of the story and how they want to visualize it, especially an emotionally challenging story as this is.

I'm not quite sure if I liked the narrator intruding during parts of the story (provided by the same voice over guy who does the BMW and Dos Equiis ads and other commercials), teetering on the fence between acceptance and annoyance. I do think the narration helps us to feel more detached from the story, sort of like we're peeping in through someone else's window, invading their privacy and seeing things that we shouldn't.

I like rosy happy endings as much as the next bloke but movies don't always have them and I'm glad this one didn't. I do like an ending to have some degree of closure and this film definitely had that. I honestly wasn't expecting to see one of the endings as it played out, providing a bit of shock value the first time I watched. I was pleased at the bit of irony at the end of the movie as I thought it was a nice touch.

I did like the narrator's closing line:

"You couldn't change the past, but the future could be a different story... (dramatic pause for effect) ...and it had to start somewhere."

****½ out of *****

Little Children (2006, R, 130 minutes), starring Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connolly, Noah Emmerich, Jackie Earle Haley, Phyllis Somerville, Sadie Goldstein and Ty Simpkins. Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta. Screenplay by Tom Perrotta and Todd Field. Directed by Todd Field. Nominated for three 2007 Academy Awards (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay).