Despite an 83% positive rating on rottentomatoes.com, "Little Children" didn't do that much for me when I ventured out to the flicks last night.
Kate Winslet is beautiful as Sarah Pierce, as are Patrick Wilson as Brad Adamson and Jennifer Connelly in a supporting role as Brad's wife Kathy. The two children are charming, and act like kids. I was just left cold.
The movie starts well, I was taken with the characters and their sudden passions. I understood the well educated Sarah's loathing of the suburban mother's around her who seemed to have no ambition beyond being the cattiest women in the neighborhood. I appreciated Brad's desire not to pass the bar exam. The fact that their needs to break free coincided made for a potentially wonderful tale.
The subplot about the return of convicted exhibitionist Ronnie J. McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley) to his mother's home and his subsequent persecution by former cop Larry Hedges (Noah Emmerich) doesn't seem to fit until the end of the movie. It doesn't serve to tie Sarah and Brad together or move forward any other aspect of the plot.
The scene in the movie which amused me the most was the one at the book club, when Sarah's walking partner/baby sitter dragged her along as her "little sister" to discuss Madam Bovary. The other "little sister" there was Mary Ann (Mary B. McCann) the queen bee of the moms at the playground. Anyway the discussion of Madam Bovary was funny, if a bit obvious in relation to the movie.
By the last 45 minutes I was checking my watch. I was tired of Sarah and Brad, though I was finally starting to be interested in the relationship between Ronnie and Larry.
I think if I'd been reading the novel I'd have been fine with the ending, but I like my movie magic and hated to see this ending on film.
And to the projectionist at the Broadway, your undeleted expletive when you were starting the trailers was loud and clear in the auditorium.
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