Little Children (2006)

Directed by: Todd Field
Starring: Kate Winslet

***

Its interesting when a movie is made just about as well as it can be, the story is everything its supposed to be and the performances are exactly spot on but its not a great movie. Little Children didn't really seem to have too many flaws but it was never really good enough to compliment everything that was done well.

Todd Field did a brilliant job in creating suburbia. He began with a group of bitchy women who sit at the park everyday and gossip. While certainly appropriate, had this been the centerpiece of Field's recreation of suburban life, it would have gotten old an annoying. The way he structured and told this story is both a credit to him and the writing.

After introducing all these bitches, we begin to follow just one. Sarah (Winslet), not being the typical suburban housewife, breaks barriers by having a conversation with "The Prom King" aka Brad (Patrick Wilson). The sexual tension that ensues is what drives her story forward. As the film progresses the introduction of characters, their backgrounds and their purposes in the film is masterful. The transition from a partial character piece to a strange sort of ensemble piece is so seemless at times that it all seems to just blend in to the story. In other words, the introduction of Brad's friend Larry, or Ronnie, the local pedophile, all come at such an appropriate points in the film that even when all other characters are absent, we feel like what is happening is very directly affecting everyone else we've to whom we've been introduced.

The performances in this film are simple to say the least. So often a movie that tries to recreate real life ends up going overboard and its boring (see The Wire). Here, the actors cling to the simplicity that is realistic while they let the drama unfold around them. There was no need for overly dramatic arguments or scenes with character sobbing uncontrollably over lost love or the mundane life they are forced to live. Winslet, Wilson and supporting performances by Jennifer Connolly, Noah Emmerich and Jackie Earl Haley are all very good.

Despite my compliments for this film, it all comes back to how I opened. So much of this movie is done well but the film, in and of itself is really only just good.