Little Children
Damn, lost a bunch of stuff written about a second viewing of this. To my surprise, I found it even better a second time around – I really thought it might lose a lot when knowing what to expect from it. I’d almost forgotten about the cheeky voiceover in the time since last watching. I’m sure some might say that voiceover is “too” quirky and even that it betrays the literary roots of the movie, but I find that combined with the way the camera so often simply “boxes” the action, in a manner reminiscent of American Beauty (not the only similarity this has with that movie), it basically makes the movie exactly what is referred to early on as Kate Winslet’s character observes the other mothers in the playground – it’s an anthropological study of humans. The title, “Little Children,” to me is like a question – who are the children here? And there’s a marvelous moment towards the end where the positions of parent-child, comforter-comforted, the roles of responsibility, swap within minutes between Winslet, her daughter, and Jackie Earl Haley’s sex offender, ending with Winslet having a minor breakdown and her daughter having to assume practically the mother role, telling her it’s all okay … it contains the movie’s two most beautiful shots, that of Winslet approaching Haley from the swingset, arm outstretched, and that of her daughter alone in the street gazing at moths around a streetlight … I mean, just for those 5-10 minutes alone, this movie is a priceless wonder.
December 7th, 2006:
I don’t know what to write here for two reasons – one, that my advice to anyone planning to see this movie (and if you’re not, then start making plans) is to read as little about it as possible beforehand … so just stop right now; and two, that I really don’t know where to begin at this stage. I don’t have the words, but I’ll try.
It’s mesmerisingly beautiful, whether it’s being funny, sad, even when it’s sometimes grotesque, disturbing, almost plain wrong (and yes, it’s all those things in its never dull 2 hours plus duration), it’s completely arresting. I want and need to see this one so many times. It’s in an entirely different league from the other 46 movies I’ve seen this year. I didn’t want it to end, not least because I really feared that any ending would surely miss something out and let the rest of the movie down … boy was I wrong. It rips your heart out and shows it to you and it’s disgusting and human, beautiful and ugly, despairing and hoping.
Just watch it. Just … wow.
January 26th, 2007 at 4:50 am
[...] Little Children Todd Field [...]
January 30th, 2007 at 12:48 am
[...] Little Children Little Miss Sunshine [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 3:17 am
[...] I don’t like reviewing movies so long after a viewing but I’m in catch-up mode at the moment and I feel a little more relaxed than I normally would with this one ‘cos, the big positive of this review is, I will be watching this again in the future. In a nutshell, I really wanna say that this movie is like American Beauty and Little Children rolled into one. I hate how people recently have compared Little Children to American Beauty, it’s like they’ve totally missed the point that Little Children is the ANTI American Beauty. Like, where AB was all, “Live your life be free,” Little Children kinda said, 7 years on, “OH. WHOA. Let’s not all do it at once, hey.” And like half a century earlier, who but David Lean would expect to be doing the same exchange within one movie? Let’s dismiss the fact that I watched this on Valentine’s Day on my own in a hotel room, lol. The ending truly makes this movie. I spent the first 90% thinking, “how the heck did they get away with this back then?” and the last couple of minutes just kinda humbling myself before the TV screen. Yes, it has cheesy British accents and cheesy lines and cheesy moments and so much cheese it’s like a fondu party. But that ending is so out there, so honest, I really can’t wait to see it again, ‘cos I’m certain this is gonna grow on me. [...]
May 26th, 2007 at 12:02 am
[...] Little Children Todd Field [...]
May 29th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
[...] Somehow, towards the end, it just clicked with me and I just began to seriously dig the extremes of the whole matter. Whether I like it or not, it got to me, and got me in more of a muddle over the reviewing process (as is probably horrifically evident) than expected (and frankly, I expected to be stumped). I’m not dumb enough to ignore a movie that affects me that much just ‘cos I didn’t want to like it and probably will take a while to watch again. Though I’d recommend Little Children, The Woodsman, Chris Morris’ “Brass Eye” special, a little reading about the badly fluffed UK police Operation Ore, more, I can’t deny, this is a pretty brassy, peculiarly cinematic considering the subject, piece of work that, no matter what end of the argument you reside on, needs as open an approach as you can muster. [...]