Little Children

Charity and I were intrigued by the poster of the movie when we saw it in the entertainment section of a local paper last Tuesday and decided to catch the last full show last night at Robinsons Galleria in Ortigas.

Little Children is based from a novel of Tom Perrotta about the lives of married couples whose lives intersect on the playgrounds, town pools and streets of their small community .

Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson stars in the movie. The movie title is not about the children but on the lives of their parents and their behavior as told by an unseen narrator giving the movie a different feel.

Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet),who has a degree from a graduate school is seen through the movie as living the life of a typical american suburban housewife who takes her daughter to the park every afternoon to play with other kids and mingle with the women in her neighborhood.

She is married to Richard (Gregg Edelman), whose profession is marketing and getting sexual release from masturbating to internet pornography. Sarah caught him in the act one time and for a woman who is already having insecurities about herself, such an act just fueled her desire to reclaim a life that could have been if she has chosen another path.

She found herself having an affair with Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), the only weekday dad at the playground, a handsome former athlete known to the other playground moms as “the Prom King.” Brad who is married to Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), a documentary filmmaker, and has an easy rapport with their son, Aaron, whom Brad cares for while Kathy is at work. The movie provides a glimpse of how stay-at-home dads feels about themselves and how society as a whole really percieve them to be.

Though the topic of infidelity was already used in movies like American Beauty, Little Children presented it in a different way. The actors were able to portray the emotions of those who are trapped in a relationship gone sour. Their struggles with what they can have and what they will lose if they let their feelings loose.

I have a feeling these movie will make rounds in various film festivals so do catch it if you have the time.