Meet me at the playground

People, please, run, don’t walk, to the local theater and see Todd Field’s LITTLE CHILDREN. I saw it last night with my friend, Grace, and I cannot get it off my mind.

My favorite, Kate Winslet, stars as Sarah Pierce, disinterested stay-at-home mother of Lucy and wife to Richard, a man more interested in internet love than that of his wife. Patrick Wilson plays Brad Anderson, the Mr. Mom of the neighborhood, who takes care of his son, Aaron, (and pretends to the study for the bar for the third time) while his gorgeous wife (played by Jennifer Connolly) rules the roost and makes documentary films.

Sarah and Brad meet and what begins as a joke turns into an affair (this is not a spoiler) – an affair that echoes that of one Madame Bovary. The b plot is the story of Ronnie McGorvey, the convicted pedophile who has moved back into the neighborhood, and how the community reacts to him.

Between the affair and the Ronnie plot, the tension is palpable and the film builds slow and steady to a full boil. The script and the direction do an excellent job of creating characters that seem sympathetic and you find yourself rooting for them, and then in the next scene, their behavior is so damming, you are sick to your stomach. A fascinating examination of the individual, the desire for love and to be understood, and the terrifying other side of the nurturing community – the angry mob.

Everyone – and I mean everyone – gives an amazing performance, not to mention the narrator, who neatly helps the story along.

Please go see it so we can talk about it!