Little Children

So, after missing this one at Telluride, I finally got a to pay to see it.

But first, a few previews.

ALPHA DOG–Justin Timberlake in ANOTHER freakin’ movie about white trash degenerates. (More about the other one later.) This time it’s about a group of teenagers who kill another one after accidentally taking him hostage. Or something like that. All I know is that the families of the real participants are pissed that it got made and tried to stop its release. Even though all of the names and locations are changed, they figure people will know exactly who it’s about. And, apparently, the trial isn’t over yet. Maybe. I don’t know. The article I read was kind of confusing and it was a while ago.

I’ll stop typing now.

NOTES ON A SCANDAL–Judi Dench “befriends” a new teacher (Cate Blanchett) after the younger woman becomes involved with a student. Judi blackmails Cate into this friendship and then all Single White Female hell breaks loose.

This actually looks really cool. And it’s interesting that involves an older woman instead of two hot young ones. Judi looks pretty menacing, too, so that helps a lot. I’ll see it.

SMOKIN’ ACES–This one is awesome! I actually kind of can’t wait to see it again.

BLACK SNAKE MOAN–And, again: This one is awesome! And it’s the other Justin Timberlake preview. Personally, I think he needs to stop trying to act. But I’ll see how he is in Alpha Dog before I really draw any conclusions. Check this one out, though. Very good flick.

Now, how ’bout these kids, then?

It’s an interesting phenomenon when a film can argue for something and against it at the same time. Very few films have tried it and fewer still have succeeded. The only one that really comes to mind is (sort of) Trainspotting with its constant talk of how amazing heroine is and then showing how awful it can be.

Todd Field’s Little Children seems to take that same approach towards infidelity. For one couple it seems like the only solution while for the other it seems a bit extreme.

Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet) is stuck in a loveless marriage. Her husband, Richard (Gregg Edelman), has become addicted to a porn website and, even before that, never seemed to have much interest in his wife. Sarah is kind of ambivalent towards their daughter, Lucy (Sadie Goldstein), but she is the main care-giver and stay-at-home mom. Richard never has any real interaction with his daughter. They’re terrible parents who almost realize it.

Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson) is almost the exact opposite of Sarah. He loves his son, Aaron (Ty Simpkins) and hangs out with him gladly every day while his wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) works as a documentarian. She’s a perfectly loving wife, but there’s something missing. Brad is envious of Kathy because she is able to take care of the family financially and she seems to have more of their son’s love. (Aaron wears a jester hat while he’s hanging out with Daddy, but when Mommy comes home from work he’s more serious and takes the hat off.)

When Sarah and Brad meet at the park, sparks fly and they start an affair that is more like a marriage than either of them feel that they are getting at home. They hang out at the pool together with the kids, laugh, joke and genuinely love being around each other. Then they go home for a bit and fuck like bunnies while the kids sleep.

Meanwhile, Ronald McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley from the original Bad News Bears and the new All The King’s Men) is shut up in his home. He’s a convicted sex-offender (he exposed himself to a kid) and is now living with his mom (Phyllis Somerville). That’s got the whole suburb running around and checking up on him all the time. When he shows up at the neighborhood pool all hell starts to break loose.

Ronnie especially has Larry (Noah Emmerich) riled up. He’s an ex-cop who can’t help himself from going over to Ronnie’s house and blasting a bullhorn at 2am.

All of these people come together in a suburban nightmare reminiscent of Todd Solendz’ Happiness. And, just as he was able to keep things sort of light, so is this Todd. Working from a book and screenplay by Tom Perotta (Election), he manages to make us laugh while we’re cringing from the tension brought by an illicit affair or a psycho-sexual deviant who is also a fragile human being.

He also uses the voice of NOVA, Will Lyman, as a narrator so that we feel like we’re watching a documentary about the Suburbanbound human.

Out of many great performances, Haley is a big standout. He hasn’t acted in over ten years, but it’s almost as if he had never given up. Haley’s story is a sad one that is hopefully getting better. He was a child actor with a huge future. But when adolescence hit, so did a bad case of the uglies. His hairline started receding and the freckles turned into pock marks. He wasn’t a cute kid anymore. He was a pretty unattractive young man.

But now he may just have a great future again. Field specifically wanted him to play the part and he’s fucking amazing. He makes Ronnie somehow sympathetic. We know that he’s not a good man, but we feel sorry for him mostly because of the bad things he’s done and the fact that he knows that he’ll do them again.

There has been a lot of talk about Oscars for the cast of this little film. I can see why. Everyone is very good. But I would say that the screenplay would probably get my vote.

Either way, it’s a great film and should be on more peoples’ list of Things To See.

Plus, it has two of my favorite women in it. How could I go wrong?!