Editor Reviews:

Description:
Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson star in the Academy Award nominated film Little Children, the latest work from Oscar-nominated writer/director Todd Field. Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, Little Children centers on a handful of middle-class suburban parents whose lives unravel in the wake of an adulterous affair.

Amazon.com:
Kate Winslet operates at a galaxy-class level in Little Children, Todd Field's gratifyingly grown-up look at unhappy suburbia. Winslet is magnificent, in an Oscar-nominated performance, as a stroller-pushing mom who becomes attracted to a passive househusband (Patrick Wilson). Their slow-burning infidelity (Field wisely allows time to pass in this unhurried film) is contrasted with a more sensational subplot, about a convicted pedophile (Jackie Earle Haley, also Oscar nominated) returning to the neighborhood to live with his mother (Phyllis Somerville). Field, who brought his civilized approach to In the Bedroom, uses a deliberately literary style here, including a device with a narrator who sounds as though he's sitting at our side as he reads from Tom Perotta's novel. (The narrator is a superb touch--his cultivated voice distances us from the sloppy passions of the characters.) The film's biggest miscalculation is a self-appointed neighborhood vigilante (Noah Emmerich) determined to make life miserable for the pedophile. But Wilson is appropriately nebulous, Jennifer Connelly solid as his wife, and Haley (child star of the Bad News Bears movies), as the creepy, childlike molester, found himself rediscovered after a long career layoff. There's decent acting here, but Winslet is in a zone of her own, with so much emotional honesty and subtlety of expression that she transforms a good movie into a must-see. --Robert Horton

Rating : - Not Worth Seeing
A town is terrified by the release from prison of a man who exposed himself to a little girl. The man most vocally concerned has his own dirty secrets, as do many others who are likewise, and rightfully judgmental of the pervert. The director lets us know that despite his punishment, he will behave inappropriately repeatedly. But then again, so will everyone else. It's just that his particular perversion demands an audience.
Others have affairs, conducted largely in front of their children, destroying the fabric of innocent young lives by jeopardizing their family structures. Others demean their wives, or act rashly causing death and destruction. Sometimes the perpetrators of actions which have consequences far more severe than seeing the penis of an exhibitionist go unpunished. While that is true, it doesn't diminish the fear that people have of predators taking advantage of their children.
Putting the story in the midst of the other secrets playing out in a small town in no way diminishes the seriousness of the concern parents should feel. It just makes you feel as if any interaction between people you meet has a dirty underside waiting to happen.
I hated this movie. That said, the acting and direction were superb.