Little Children (film)

Little Children is a 2006 American drama film directed by Todd Field. It is based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta, who co-wrote the screenplay with Field. It stars Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich, Gregg Edelman, Phyllis Somerville and Will Lyman. The original music score is composed by Thomas Newman. The film screened at the 44th New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. It earned 3 nominations at the 79th Academy Awards: Best Actress for Winslet, Best Supporting Actor for Haley, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Field and Perrotta.

Little Children
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTodd Field
Produced byTodd Field
Albert Berger
Ron Yerxa
Screenplay byTodd Field
Tom Perrotta
Based onLittle Children
by Tom Perrotta
StarringKate Winslet
Jennifer Connelly
Patrick Wilson
Jackie Earle Haley
Noah Emmerich
Gregg Edelman
Phyllis Somerville
Music byThomas Newman
CinematographyAntonio Calvache
Edited byLeo Trombetta
Production
company
Bona Fide
Standard Film Company
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • October 6, 2006 (2006-10-06)
[1]
Running time
137 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$26 million[1]
Box office$14.8 million[1]

Plot

Sarah Pierce is a hapless, stay-at-home mother in a small suburb of Boston. She had been working on a doctorate in English, but set aside her work to marry Richard, and raise their 3-year-old daughter, Lucy. Her marriage falls apart when she discovers that Richard is addicted to online pornography. Sarah meets Brad Adamson, a law student who brings his 4-year-old son, Aaron, to the park. Brad is married to Kathy, and although their marriage is loving and amicable, it has been lacking intimacy.

When Brad is supposed to be studying for the bar exam, he instead plays on a local football team or sits and watches teenagers skateboard outside his house, fantasizing about being young and carefree again. Brad and Sarah become friendly and, on a dare, kiss in the park, scandalizing the other park parents. They are instantly attracted to each other, but resolve to keep their relationship platonic.

One day, several parents panic when they see sex offender Ronnie J. McGorvey, who was recently released from prison, swimming in the pool with the children. After Ronnie is escorted away by the police, it begins to rain. Sarah and Brad take Lucy and Aaron back to her house and put the kids to bed. Brad looks at one of Sarah's books and finds a photo of him in it. While Sarah is drying towels in her basement, Brad kisses her and they have sex.

Brad's friend, Larry Hedges, is a former police officer who was forced to retire when he accidentally shot a teenager at a local mall. Now he is estranged from his wife and spends much of his time harassing Ronnie. Ronnie lives with his mother, May, who believes that meeting a woman his own age would cure him of his pedophilia. Ronnie knows this is futile, but agrees to go on a date May has arranged for him with a woman named Sheila. During dinner, Ronnie tells Sheila about his criminal record, and Sheila in return tells him that she has had a series of nervous breakdowns. They seem to get on well, but the date ends badly when he has her drive by an elementary school playground so he can masturbate next to her in the car.

When Brad skips taking the bar exam again, Kathy grows suspicious and tells Brad to invite Sarah, Richard, and Lucy over for dinner. The intimacy evident between Brad and Sarah confirms her suspicions, and Kathy arranges for her mother to come for an extended visit so Brad and Sarah can't see one another anymore. When Brad's football team plays its final game, Sarah attends and cheers as Brad scores the winning touchdown. Afterwards, while Larry waits for Brad at a nearby bar to celebrate their victory, Brad and Sarah make out on the field. He admits that this is the happiest moment of his life, and convinces Sarah to run away with him.

Larry goes to Ronnie's house and uses a bullhorn to taunt him. May comes out to confront him and has a heart attack. Larry is arrested and May is taken to the hospital. While Ronnie sleeps in the waiting room, May dies. When Ronnie goes home, he finds an envelope containing a letter written by his mother saying: "Please be a good boy." Distraught, Ronnie destroys much of his mother's collection of Hummel figurines, then takes a butcher knife from the kitchen.

That same night, Sarah and Brad agree to meet in the park to run away together. Brad tells Aaron he loves him before putting him to bed, writes Kathy a note explaining why he is leaving her, then sneaks out while she and her mother finish the dishes. Before he can get to the park, he is distracted by skateboarding teenagers, who convince him to try a jump himself. Brad does so, but falls and knocks himself out. When he regains consciousness, he asks the paramedics to call his wife and to meet him at the hospital. It turns out that he never left the note for her and tells one of the skateboarders to dispose of it for him.

When Sarah takes Lucy to the park, she sees Ronnie stagger by, and briefly feels afraid. When she sees him crying about his mother's death, however, she feels sorry for him. When Lucy disappears, Sarah panics and rushes to find her, forgetting about Brad. After Sarah finds Lucy and puts her in the car, Sarah starts crying, realizing her getaway with Brad is just a fantasy. Larry is upset about having indirectly caused May's death. He genuinely wants to apologize to Ronnie, but when he finds Ronnie in the park, he discovers that he has castrated himself and is bleeding to death. Larry races him to the hospital, and they arrive just as Kathy meets Brad at the emergency room doors.

Cast

Production
Perrotta and Field working on the script

For this film, director Todd Field and novelist Tom Perrotta intended to take the story in a separate and somewhat different direction than the novel. "When Todd and I began collaborating on the script, we were hoping to make something new out of the material, rather than simply reproducing the book onto film," says Perrotta.[3]

Critical reception

The film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 80% based on 162 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Little Children takes a penetrating look at suburbia and its flawed individuals with an unflinching yet humane eye".[4] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote:

Mr. Field proves to be among the most literary of American filmmakers. In too many recent movies intelligence is woefully undervalued, and it is this quality — even more than its considerable beauty — that distinguishes Little Children from its peers. A movie that is challenging, accessible, and hard to stop thinking about.[6]

Scott later placed Little Children ninth on his list of the top 10 films of 2006.[7]

Carina Chocano of The Los Angeles Times also praised the film:

Little Children is one of those rare films that transcends its source material. Firmly rooted in the present and in our current frame of mind — a time and frame of mind that few artists have shown interest in really exploring — the movie is 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.[8]

Top ten lists

Little Children was listed on many critics' top ten lists.[9]

Accolades
Award Category Recipients and nominees Outcome
Academy Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Best Drama by or About Women Todd Field Won
Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
BAFTA Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Film Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Todd Field Nominated
Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Writer Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Screenplay Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Best Picture Todd Field Nominated
Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
Deauville American Film Festival Grand Special Prize Todd Field Nominated
Dublin Film Critics' Circle Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Empire Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture - Drama Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Todd Field Nominated
Best Actress - Motion Picture, Drama Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Screenplay- Motion Picture Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Gotham Awards Best Film Todd Field Nominated
Iowa Film Critics Awards Best Picture Todd Field Won
Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
London Film Critics' Circle British Actress of the Year Kate Winslet Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Music Thomas Newman Won
National Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Nominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
OFTA Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
Best Screenplay - Adapted Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Best Casting Belinda Monte & Todd Thaler Nominated
Online Film Critics Society Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
Best Screenplay - Adapted Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Palm Springs International Film Festival Desert Palm Achievement Awar Kate Winslet Won
Visionary Award Todd Field Won
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best Picture Todd Field Won
Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
Best Screenplay - Adapted Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Won
Satellite Awards Best Film - Drama Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Todd Field Nominated
Best Actress - Drama Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Actor - Drama Patrick Wilson Nominated
Best Screenplay - Adapted Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Jackie Earle Haley Nominated
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Kate Winslet Nominated
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards Best Picture Todd Field Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Won
Writers Guild of America Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Todd Field & Tom Perrotta Nominated
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Picture Todd Field Nominated
Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated

Awards and honors
Main article: List of accolades received by Little Children

The film received multiple awards and accolades, including 3 Academy Award nominations.

Film archives

35mm safety prints are housed in both the UCLA Film & Television Archive[11] and the Museum of Modern Art's permanent film collection.[12]

Home media

The film's DVD release includes no extras or director's commentary.

References
  1. "Little Children (2006)". Box Office Mojo. 2007-04-12. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
  2. "LITTLE CHILDREN (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2006-10-19. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  3. "Little Children production notes" (PDF) (Press release). New Line Cinema. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 1, 2010. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  4. "Little Children (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  5. https://www.metacritic.com/movie/little-children
  6. Scott, A. O. (September 29, 2006). "Playground Rules: No Hitting, No Sex". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  7. Scott, A. O. (December 24, 2006). "Here's to the Ambitious and the Altmans". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  8. Chocano, Carina (October 6, 2006). "'Little Children' movie review". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  9. "Metacritic: 2006 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". February 12, 2010. Archived from the original on February 12, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  10. Denby, David (December 11, 2006). "Memorable Movies of 2006" – via www.newyorker.com.
  11. "'Little Children' UCLA Film Archives". UCLA Film and Television Archive. March 4, 2007.
  12. "'Little Children' MOMA Film Archives". Museum of Modern Art Film Archive. March 17, 2007.
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