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Little Children

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Little Children (2006)

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Reviews Counted:152

Fresh:121

Rotten:31

Average Rating:7.4/10

Consensus: Little Children takes a penetrating look at suburbia and its flawed individuals with an unflinching yet humane eye.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for strong sexuality and nudity, language and some disturbing content.

Runtime: 2 hrs 17 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:03-11-2006

Synopsis: Actor-turned-director Todd Field follows up his Oscar-nominated drama, IN THE BEDROOM, with this ambitious adaptation of Tom Perrotta's celebrated novel. Set in the imploding minefields of modern... Actor-turned-director Todd Field follows up his Oscar-nominated drama, IN THE BEDROOM, with this ambitious adaptation of Tom Perrotta's celebrated novel. Set in the imploding minefields of modern suburbia, LITTLE CHILDREN follows several inhabitants of a small American town as they fumble their way through adulthood. Numb-to-life housewife and mother Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet) finds an outlet for her yearning in gorgeous househusband Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), who is crippled with insecurity over the fact that his perfect wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), is the family breadwinner. When Sarah and Brad meet at the local playground one afternoon, a passionate affair is sparked. In a further attempt to reclaim his youthful fire, Brad joins a night football league with Larry Hedges (Noah Emmerich), a former cop who has begun to harass a convicted sex offender, Ronnie J. McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley). These troubled lives eventually collide, causing each individual to take full responsibility for their not-so-responsible actions. Adapted for the screen by Field and Perrotta and artfully photographed by Antonio Calvache, LITTLE CHILDREN is a bitingly funny, and nakedly honest, critique of middle class dysfunction. Though the cast is universally superb, it is former child actor Haley (THE BAD NEWS BEARS, BREAKING AWAY) who steals the show. After only two features, Field proves that he is a truly gifted storyteller. This film was included in the 44th New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. [More]

Starring: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Gregg Edelman, Sadie Goldstein

Starring: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Gregg Edelman, Sadie Goldstein, Jennifer Connelly, Jackie Earle Haley, Jane Adams, Phyllis Somerville, Sarah Buxton

Director: Todd Field

Director: Todd Field
Producer: Albert Berger
Composer: Thomas Newman
Studio: New Line Cinema

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Reviews for Little Children

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121 - 140 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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Built from a perfect story-telling collaboration.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
10/06/06
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News

Auteur Todd Field and co-writer Tom Perrotta have created a group of some of the most unsympathetic characters to ever blight movie screen.

Full Review Source: Greenwich Village Gazette | comment Comment
10/06/06
Eric Lurio
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette

Although thought-provoking and full of outstanding performances, Little Children still can't escape a little of the same ambivalence that traps its suburban characters.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
10/06/06
Betsy Bozdech
Betsy Bozdech
Hollywood.com

There's something about the frustrations of middle class citizens trapped in suburbia that seems both profound and profoundly trivial, and that's reflected in the tone.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
10/05/06
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

This is a story that cuts through lost youth, actual youth and youth suspended through psychosexual disorders that mentally draw such people to their own kind.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
10/05/06
Erik Childress
Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

An engaging tale of middle-class suburbia, with its attendant fears, yearnings and rushes to judgment.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
10/05/06
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today

Unnervingly funny and quietly devastating.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
10/05/06
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

One of the few films I can think of that examines the baffling combination of smugness, self-abnegation, ceremonial deference and status anxiety that characterizes middle-class Gen X parenting, and find sheer, white-knuckled terror at its core.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
10/05/06
Carina Chocano
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's enough humanity exhibited in Little Children to forgive its occasional submission to wanton excess.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
10/05/06
Gene Seymour
Gene Seymour
Newsday

Although some of the actors are terrific, especially Winslet, Haley, Adams, and Phyllis Somerville as Ronald's loving mother, their work is undercut by the film's attitude of smirky superiority toward its characters. The superiority is unearned.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
10/05/06
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

It's an odd film, with a wryly intrusive, deep-voiced narrator who appears to be standing just behind the screen reading excerpts from the novel.

Full Review Source: RogerEbert.com | comment Comment
10/04/06
Jim Emerson
Jim Emerson
RogerEbert.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Little Children [is] a jolting, artfully made drama set in and around a suburban playground somewhere between American Beauty and In the Bedroom on America's psychic highay...

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
10/04/06
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

If this is an example of suburban living, I'll take NY. A riveting film.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
10/03/06
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

The main story deals with Sarah and Brad, but the other characters are given existences of their own, which is rare in motion pictures, and Little Children is richer for it.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
10/03/06
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

may not be the great follow-up we wanted after In the Bedroom, but it still verifies that the skill he showed there is no fluke

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
10/03/06
Chris Cabin
Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com

Wilson's overgrown adolescent, Winslet's bored, discontented wife and Haley's creepy, self-loathing sex offender are complex, deeply flawed characters -- they're the 'little children.'

Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
10/02/06
David Ansen
David Ansen
Newsweek

As Little Children skitters along, it gathers weight, like a snowball, until it finally knocks you cold.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
10/02/06
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine

Magnetic, a movie that manages to be artistic and entertaining all at once.

Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
10/02/06
Joshua Tyler
Joshua Tyler
CinemaBlend.com

Little Children is bursting with fantastic performances, filled with great and often hilarious dialogue, structured with layer upon layer of resonant meaning and shot with gorgeous, masterful camerawork. The film works on every single level.

Full Review Source: CHUD | comment Comment
10/01/06
Devin Faraci
Devin Faraci
CHUD

Seems terribly confused about whether it wants to be literary drama or out-and-out satire.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
09/30/06
Jurgen Fauth
Jurgen Fauth
About.com
 
 
121 - 140 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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Latest News for Little Children

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