Incisive writing. Sharp performances. Astute direction. Todd Field REALLY needs to work more, because between Little Children and In the Bedroom, the guy has demonstrated serious filmmaking and storytelling chops. He also gets MASSIVE POINTS for portraying the mysterious piano player in Eyes Wide Shut. Patrick Wilson is one of the most underrated actors out there and he’s dynamite in this movie. Kate Winslet, as always, is terrific, and Jennifer Connelly is her typically moody and gorgeous and dramatic self, all furrowed brows and emotionally fragile beyond belief. But it’s Jackie Earle Haley who completely steals the show. His heartbreaking portrayal of a man struggling with intense inner demons was a rich characterization that hit lots of multilayered notes of sadness, and the way he used his expressive eyes to convey his mental anguish was nothing shot of extraordinary. The scene at the pool is an all-time classic of suburban satire, shot and acted as if it were the set-piece of a horror film, but saying so much about society that the moment becomes two-fold in its meaning. Noah Emmerich has yet another memorable supporting role; how many times has this guy spiced up a movie?! The cinematography by Antonio Calvache is slick and precise and designed with an almost Kurbickian level of attention to detail, and there’s an Incredibly effective score from Thomas Newman. This is yet another filmed adaptation based on the novelistic work of Tom Perotta (Election, The Leftovers), and here, Perotta received an Oscar nomination along with Field for their writing duties. And the dryly humorous voice-over that narrates the film was an added bonus; this aspect of the film, while contentious with some, is what separates it from others in this well-traveled milieu of white picket-fence satire. Little Children fits snugly in the realm of “diseased suburbia Connecticut movies,” where the seemingly all-American and successful family unit is placed under an intense microscope, resulting in all manner of scrutiny. Husbands and wives are having affairs, there’s a potentially reformed pederast living down the street, and the façade of the perfect life is shattered via the daily rituals that all of the characters pretend to be living up too. Field is an incredibly literate filmmaker, mixing dark comedy with biting social commentary, resulting in a work that feels like a poison-pen letter to the ideas and notions of perfect domestic bliss and harmony.
Podcasting Them Softly 