I just finished watching "Little Children". Wow.

[Matsubara]

That was an excellent film. Not what I expected.

It seems like I am being deeply affected by more and more movies lately. I wonder if it's that the movies are better, or if I've become a lot more sensitive?

[Arugula Latte]

1. I just watched it as well.

They did a good job ...

However (yes, I'm going to make the old "It wasn't as good as the book" argument) ... I thought the movie neglected the relationship between Sarah and Richard (the ol' panty sniffer). In the book it was clearer in the end that Sarah had made up her mind to leave him and that she would concentrate on her neglected child.

The acting, though, was superb.

[some guy]

2. Excellent indeed!

You're probably just in a groove of selecting excellent movies lately. I hit those grooves once in a while, where it seems like every film I watch is really good, thought-provoking and well-made.

It sure covered a lot of ground in terms of giving the viewer opportunities to form and reform opinions on the various characters.

[wildhorses]

3. excellent film

:thumbsup:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6480579

[bigwillq]

5. I wish I saw that thread

I would've commented in it.

[Matsubara]

6. Jackie Earle Haley! The Name Just came back to me!

It's the kid from "The Bad News Bears", right? WOW! He is an odd loking fellow nowadays, eh? But a solid performance.


I bet today's young people watching that movie would never guess he used to be a teen sensation!

[hippywife]

12. I think he looks

pretty dang hot in those pics at the imdb link. Lots better than when he was a kid.

[bigwillq]

4. I thought it was disappointing.

There was some good acting in it but overall I thought it was overrated. I thought it would be so much better. Most of the characters annoyed me.

[Matsubara]

7. The Stepford quality of the playground ladies was the only thing that annoyed me

Their simplistic characters were a bit too one-dimensional, straying into the realm of parody. That's good for a bit of comic effect, but it's nice to get a curve ball now and then to remind us that the character is a person and not just a caricature.

[bigwillq]

8. I liked them

and I thought it should've stayed a bit more satrical...I didn't read the book but I heard that's how the book is. I hated the Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson characters as well as a few others. But the ladies, I liked that part.

[Matsubara]

9. As a parent and marrried partner, I liked and identified with them.

They took urges and feelings a lot of us have but don't act on and explored what would happen if we actually did. I thought they were good, subtle portrayals of the longing for "something else" that sets in when we realize we have locked ourselves into a life that's not all we thought it would be, and we realize that it will never go back to what it was in our youth. I especially liked how Winslet's character simultaneously worshipped and resented Wilson's character's beauty and the feelings of insecurity and inadequacy it stirred up in her. But her cathartic experience in the end led her to leave those feelings behind as well as the couple's hairbrained plan, once she realized what was really important. A lot of films would have been much more hamfisted in making the point. It was so subtlethat I can imagine a lot of right-wingers I know watching this film and scratching their heads at the end, making the same kind of remarks about the characters that the blonde lady made about Madame Bovary at the book club - totally missing the point of the film (although there is obviously more than one)

[bigwillq]

10. I got the point of the film

I just think other films, notably American Beauty, did a much better job with that type of Suburban American Life and with AB they did it with near perfect satire and I think that's the route Little Children should've taken.

There have been so many movies on this subject, bored housewives, horny male neighbors, wacky women and their friends, etc...I guess I just thought this film would put a different spin on it and for me it didn't.

[Matsubara]

13. I loved American Beauty, but the point of the films was totally different.

AB was all about how false the whole perfect suburban family facade is, and how trying to be what society tells us we ought to be can destroy us.

Little Children seemed to be more about people who've taken on the task of parenthood, but have yet to really comprehend what a total commitment that is and why. I didn't think it put a different spin on those topics ( bored housewives, horny male neighbors, wacky women and their friends) because it wasn't really about that. Winslet's character happened to get distracted by a pretty guy, and the guy happened to get distracted by an intriguing girl, but the point was that they were both behaving like little kids skipping school, and that in the end they both needed to grow the hell up.

Lester Burnham's character in AB couldn't have been more different. It was because his daughter was nearly grown and no longer needed him that he could dabble in marijuana and fantasies about teen girls. His active role as a father was nearly done, so at that stage in life, some exploration and rebellion is well-earned and probably a positive thing. And although AB had a lot of parodic elements, Lester's wife is a much more true-to-life portrayal of contemporary women than the judgmental, gossipy little biddies with too much time on their hands in Little Children. _oops, I went and scored a point for your side there! Oh well, I liked both films in different ways. Obviously they weren't going out of their way in either case to keep the story TOO grounded in reality, but compared to a film like "Crash", this one seemed a lot more plausible.

[wildhorses]

14. i wish you had seen it, too.

we would have had a lively discussion :toast:

i hate to comment about specifics now cos my memory as to the details...

i do think that given the quality of film one usually sees from 'hollywood' that this one was 'excellent'. not perfect.

i like it when i am forced to 'like' irritating characters :shrug:

[Kerrytravelers]

11. We just love love love the film. Mr kt swears it was the best film of last year!