On DVD: Little Children

Little Children, the film adaptation of the book by Tom Perrotta, has been sitting next to my DVD player for about 3 months now. This isn't because I didn't actually want to watch the movie. It's more because between WoW, travel, working in the yard, and other stuff going on in life, I haven't watched anything on DVD in about that time.

But to the movie.

An "anthropologic" view of white, upwardly-mobile, socially conscious parents and their children and their family, Little Children is about violations of the law. In particular, the film is about adultery and pedophilia (though not treated with equal screen time). It's an excellent dissection of the ennui of marriage and children and the upper-middle class suburbs and the desire for more life when being crushed by routine and normalcy. I won't go in to all the details, because the film is worth seeing without knowing too much about it. It's witty, ugly, very well acted, a touch melodramatic, and features first-rate performances by Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley.

Jackie Earle Haley, you may not know, had quite the carrer back in the late 70's with films like The Bad News Bears. He couldn't get out of the child actor mold, and did very little until this film. And then he got an Academy Award nomination for his work. It's excellent work. He's creepy and disturbing and sympathetic and before you know what he's doing, he's manipulating you as a viewer as much as his victims in the film. It's excellent work, and very much worth seeing.

And Kate Winslet. I love it when actors can show about 3 distinct emotions at once, and there's truth in every one of them. Why did she get nominated for an Academy Award as well? Just watch those 15 seconds after she sees her lover's wife for the first time.

Has anyone seen her be bad in a movie? I mean, not that the movie was bad, but that her performance was bad? I haven't.