Little Children

In a small American community, the lives of several people intersect in potentially dangerous ways. Conventional lifestyles mask disruptive tensions and a desire to transcend the insipid nature of everyday life and its dysfunctional relationships.

Sarah (Kate Winslet) is an anthropologist studying suburban women. She has a small child and feels out of place with her shallow neighbours who seem to have better parenting skills but empty lives. She is attracted to Brad, another misfit parent (and law graduate) who looks after his child while his high-flying wife is the breadwinner. A second storyline concerns Ronnie, recently paroled after serving time for indecent exposure to children, whose presence in the neighbourhood adds an ugly side to day-to-day concerns.

Little Children is a detailed, complex and intelligently made movie with crisp editing, imaginative cinematography and several well-developed characters. Intertextual insights are provided when Sarah's book reading club discusses a novel by Flaubert, Madame Bovary. Sarah (who has a Masters in Literature) identifies with Emma Bovary, who was drawn into an illicit affair with a lawyer. While her neighbours condemn Bovary as a 'slut', Sarah's reading is more nuanced, detecting the dilemma where Bovary has to either accept a life of misery or struggle against it. Flaubert's critical view of Bovary was balanced by an unflattering view of the country bourgeois who oppose her - and who equate neatly with Sarah's respectable, unadventurous (if ultimately rather empty-headed) neighbours. Flaubert's novel, or a synopsis, provides clues to viewers looking for a deeper understanding of this film.

Handsome hunk Brad is married to the equally visually perfect Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) yet is dismissive of outer beauty, hoping to make the dowdy Sarah feel better. Perhaps a little too true to character, when Winslet gets her kit off, the scruffy hair and minimal make-up make way for beautiful bronzed tones framed by strikingly attractive locks. I couldn't help but wonder if the symbolism was less important than the natural desire of any actress to look her best during lovemaking scenes (bar Kathy Bates in About Schmidt). But however photogenic, Little Children is mostly convincing. Its detailed and leisurely pace closely resembles a novel, even if the subject matter is reminiscent of the punchier American Beauty.

The main flaw of Little Children is that, for all the consummate skill in the telling, it lacks anything earth-shatteringly memorable or climactic in all of its 130 minutes. It is pleasant and mildly thought-provoking throughout, but the ending, when it comes, is a little too tidy. Another vehicle for Winslet's increasingly recognised talent, one would like Little Children to have achieved the greatness it so richly deserves.