The Fundy Film Society

Little Children

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, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) finds an outlet for her yearning in gorgeous househusband Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson, Hard Candy), who is crippled with insecurity over the fact that his perfect wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly, Requiem for a Dream), 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, The Truman Show), a former cop who has begun to harass a convicted sex offender, Ronnie J. McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley, Breaking Away). 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 who steals the show. After only two features, Field proves that he is a truly gifted storyteller.