Todd Field's Little Children dramatizes the dark and sometimes dangerous underbelly of suburban parents and their interactions. The large cast of characters is well-envisioned, well-developed, and well-acted, although Patrick Wilson's performance sometimes felt a bit affected and rang false. Detailing the minutiae of these people's lives was oddly magnetic and hid the beginnings of an ominous foreboding. The plot follows some surprising avenues, heavily describing characters that at first seemed secondary. The editing was excellent. It propelled the movie forward, paced each story equally and fully, and still managed artistic flourishes here and there. There are scenes of incredible tension starting in the middle and increasing in magnitude as it nears the finale that hold the audience's attention and breath. I found myself emotionally involved with the characters as well.Onto the parts I hated. I cannot get out of my head the completely unnecessary and distracting voice-over narration. I've said before that it's an excuse for sloppy filmmaking and that a good filmmaker can show visually what the narrator is saying. In this case, the narration actually adds nothing to the plot or characters and only serves to distance the audience from the events on-screen, reminding us that this was based on a book. There is not even anything to replace with images. Every single line the narrator was saying should have been simply excised. Also, I thought the film sort of chickened out from a satisfying ending, but in a way it also reaffirmed that it was trying to depict real life and that normal events happening in the span of a two hour movie cannot elicit life-changing decisions from real characters (or at least these specific events). And everything gets tied up in a bowtie a little too nicely at the end. Some of the director's decisions are just impossible for me to approve of. The slow-mo football game that reminded me of the homo-erotic mud/rain football scene in Invincible is one. Another is the overpolishing of scenes, separating them from reality. Despite these many problems, however, the film is engrossing and keeps you watching. If it sounds interesting, give it a spin.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0404203/