Little Children
DVD - 2007
Sarah Pierce is a new stay at home mom struggling with the solitude of her new role. Spending every moment with a three year old tests the patience of the one-time English scholar. One day, at a local playground, she interacts with a group of moms and the differences are clear. They embrace motherhood and seem to relish all that their new role brings. One day, Brad, a stay at home dad brings his son to the playground. Sarah is amazed to find these mom have never talked to Brad and one of the women bets Sarah five dollars that she won't get his phone number. Sarah not only gets his phone number, but he lets him in on the joke and they hug and kiss. Emasculated by his wife, Kathy, Brad becomes slightly obsessed with finding ways to demonstrate he can still produce testosterone. Soon, Sarah and Brad start a passionate affair. At the same time, their quiet suburban community deals with Ronnie, a convicted pedophile who has just been released from prison. He returns to his mother's home and she helps him endure the constant taunts of an overzealous neighbor. These lives intersect in suprising and potentially dangerous ways.
Publisher:
Burbank, CA : New Line Home Entertainment : Distributed by Warner Home Video, [2007]
ISBN:
9780780656956
0780656954
0780656954
Characteristics:
1 videodisc (130 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.
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nickqian
May 16, 2014
you can't change the past, but the future is a different story-- and it has to start somewhere

Comment
Add a CommentDVD should be withdrawn- old and damaged. Good thing I've read the book.
The copy is severely scratched. For 1/2 or 2/3 of the movie, I could only get jumpy images and broken dialogues.
If you ask me - I think that a much more fitting title for this decidedly bleak, black comedy (from 2006) would have been "American Beauty: The Sequel".
Filled to overflowing with endless ill-will and depressing personal dramas - Little Children's story of small-town gossip, infidelity, fetish, and dissatisfaction in the bedroom (as well as a bit of sexual perversion thrown into the mix, for good measure) - Left me feeling like I seriously needed to take a long, hot shower, after it was all over, in order to scrub away all of the trauma and taint that prevailed and totally saturated me during this picture's 2.2-hour running time.
To be sure - Little Children is the sort of little "tattle-tale" soap opera that isn't gonna appeal to everyone's tastes. No way. But, with that said - It certainly did contain its fair share of truly compelling moments that helped to earn it a 2.5-star rating from yours truly, ManMachine..... (*Watch video movie-clip*)
Constant gut-wrenching plot turns! And great acting all around. This movie will wake you up a bit.
They called it, "Little Children", but they should of called "messed up adults", poor children have to suffer the adult misery, and fleeting love and dissatisfaction! No, all you children, beware! Keep away.
Felt a lot like American Beauty, especially with the narrator, though it was however, missing the same beauty. There's no relief in this movie, just an excellent cast that follow an excellent screenplay deeper and deeper into gloom. Definitely a bummer:(
I checked this movie out because Kate Winslet is a good actress but I thought the movie was raunchy, racy, disturbing and very immoral. If you cater to sexual scenes, then I guess you'll like it, but it was bordering pornography.
Ronnie who happened to be a pedophile hurt children with his vices, but what do you call Sarah's husband who was glued to the internet and was a craving sexual maniac? And what do you call Brad (aka the prom king) who was cheating on his wife left and right? And what do you call Sarah who thought it was right to cheat on her husband with the excuse that he was a pervert?
Until these grown adults realized the consequences of their actions did they come to their senses; Sarah exposing her child when they were going to run away as if they were teenagers, and Brad trying to hold on to his teen years with skateboarding?
You noticed when he got hurt he told them to call his wife forgetting that Sarah was probably waiting for him. And what was up with the maniac of the ex cop who shot someone himself. Why was he pretending to be so righteous? It was because of his relentless actions that Ronnie's mom died. He came to his senses when Ronnie castrated himself.
It wasn't a good movie it was deplorable and disgusting to watch how humans act holier than thou when in actuality they're corrupt.
good movie but not a happy one. it IS hard to be a GOOD mom both in the movie and in real life.
An amazing and unusual film with a wonderful cast including Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, and Jennifer Connelly. It’s a very dark look at suburbia, a mix of sex, love, and perversity involving two dysfunctional married couples with small children, a recently released sex offender who ends up living in their neighborhood with his mother, and an ex-cop who organizes late night football games for fellow cops and heads a campaign to ostracize the sex offender. The movie reminded me very much of the milieu in which Todd Solondz operates, and interestingly enough, one of the characters in the film who meets up on a blind date with the sex offender is played by Jane Adams who was one of the leads in Solondz’ HAPPINESS. Winslet and Wilson were exceptionally good in their central roles, she as an angry, sexually unsatisfied housewife and he as a frustrated stay-at-home dad trying to pass his bar exam while suppressing a latent attraction for young boy skateboarders. While the landscape, needless to say, is most quirky and quite explosive. the film as a whole is nevertheless quite intriguing and compelling.
While the narrator merely took away from the film, it's an overall great film, and while he doesn't have a really big part, I'd say Jackie Earle Haley had the best performance, playing an overall twisted character. I recommend the film.