Little Children (film)

Little Children
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Todd Field
Produced by	Todd Field Albert Berger Ron Yerxa
Screenplay by	Tom Perrotta Todd Field
Based on	Little Children  by Tom Perrotta
Starring	Kate Winslet Jennifer Connelly Patrick Wilson Jackie Earle Haley Noah Emmerich Gregg Edelman Phyllis Somerville
Narrated by	Will Lyman
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Antonio Calvache
Edited by	Leo Trombetta
Production company	Bona Fide Standard Film Company
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	October 6, 2006 [1]
Running time	137 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$26 million[3]
Box office	$14.8 million[4]

Little Children is a 2006 American drama film directed by Todd Field. It is based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta, who along with Field wrote the screenplay. 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.

Plot

Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet) is a hapless, stay-at-home mother in a small suburban Boston community. She had been working on a doctorate in English, but set aside her work to marry Richard (Gregg Edelman) and raise their 3-year-old daughter, Lucy (Sadie Goldstein). Her marriage falls apart when she discovers that Richard is addicted to online pornography. She meets Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), a law student who brings his 4-year-old son, Aaron (Ty Simpkins), to the park. Although Brad's marriage to Katherine (Jennifer Connelly) is loving and amicable, it has been lacking intimacy.

When he is supposed to be studying for the bar exam, Brad 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 Ronald "Ronnie" McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley), a sex offender who was recently released from prison, swimming in the pool with the children. After Ronnie is escorted away by two police officers, 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 (Noah Emmerich) is a former police officer who was forced to retire when he accidentally shot a teenager at a local shopping mall. Now he is estranged from his wife and spends much of his time harassing Ronnie. Ronnie lives with his mother, May (Phyllis Somerville), who believes that meeting a woman his own age would cure him of his pedophilia. Ronnie knows this is futile, but agrees to on a date May has arranged for him with a woman named Sheila (Jane Adams).

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 wakes the neighborhood up by using a bullhorn to taunt him. May comes out to confront him and has a heart attack. Larry is arrested and May 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 rendezvous through 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

• Kate Winslet as Sarah Pierce
• Patrick Wilson as Brad Adamson
• Jennifer Connelly as Katherine "Kathy" Adamson
• Jackie Earle Haley as Ronald "Ronnie" James McGorvey
• Noah Emmerich as Larry Hedges
• Phyllis Somerville as May McGorvey
• Gregg Edelman as Richard Pierce
• Ty Simpkins as Aaron Adamson
• Sadie Goldstein as Lucy Pierce
• Jane Adams as Sheila
• Raymond J. Barry as Bullhorn Bob
• Trini Alvarado as Theresa
• Marsha Dietlein as Cheryl
• Mary B. McCann as Mary Ann
• Rebecca Schull as Laurel
• Chadwick Brown as Tony Correnti
• Adam Mucci as Richie Murphy
• Chance Kelly as Pete Olaffson
• Lola Pashalinski as Bridget
• Hunter Reid as Christian
• Sarah Buxton as Slutty Kay
• Will Lyman (uncredited) as Narrator

Production

Perrotta and Field working on the script for Little Children

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.^[5]

Critical reception

Reviews of the film were generally positive. Based on 157 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of critics gave Little Children a positive review (125 "Fresh"; 32 "Rotten"), with an average rating of 7.4/10.^[6] 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."^[7]

Scott later placed Little Children ninth on his list of the top 10 films of 2006.^[8]

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."^[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

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^[10] and the Museum of Modern Art's permanent film collection.^[11]

Differences between the film and the novel

• While the film is a satirical melodrama, ^[12] the book hues closer to straight satire.
• Brad in the movie was named Todd in the novel.
• In the novel, Sarah wore a red bikini at the swimming pool area. In the movie, it was a one-piece.
• The novel does not end with a hospital scene.
• Near the end novel Richard leaves Sarah for a porn star named "Slutty Kay" who lives in San Diego. He goes to San Diego under the guise of a business trip there. In the film he doesn't leave Sarah and is described as simply being in San Diego on a business trip.
• At the end of the novel, Ronnie admits to Sarah that he has given in to his compulsions and has murdered a young girl. In the film, there is no such confession, and Ronnie castrates himself.

References

1. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=littlechildren.htm
2. "LITTLE CHILDREN (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2006-10-19. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
3. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=littlechildren.htm
4. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=littlechildren.htm
5. "Little Children production notes" (Press release). New Line Cinema. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 1, 2010. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
6. "Little Children (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
7. Scott, A. O. (September 29, 2006). "Playground Rules: No Hitting, No Sex". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
8. Scott, A. O. (December 24, 2006). "Here's to the Ambitious and the Altmans". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
9. 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.
10. "'Little Children' UCLA Film Archives". UCLA Film and Television Archive. March 4, 2007.
11. "'Little Children' MOMA Film Archives". Museum of Modern Art Film Archive. March 17, 2007.
12. Cullum, Paul (January 21, 2007). "Acting all grown up in a land of `Children'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 4, 2016.

External links

• Little Children at the Internet Movie Database
• Little Children at Box Office Mojo
• Little Children at Rotten Tomatoes
• Little Children at Metacritic