Review of Little Children (2006) by Lewis C — 17 Nov 2009

I have a hard time reviewing movies like Little Children. The difficulty isn't in deciding whether I like it, it's having to explain how the things about it that I liked are hard to extract from the things I didn't like. The pros and cons are just mixed up together.

I loved and didn't like how the movie made me empathize with characters that I should not have supported and the decisions that they made. I loved how uncomfortable it made me feel about certain things, like how we treat those among us who are undesirable, and how cruel we can be when we fear someone. I loved how I slowly built up sympathy for a character, and then that emotion was deftly twisted into revulsion, and finally pity. I loved how it made me wonder at how loneliness and distance can creep between a husband and wife, without them realizing it until the damage is done. This isn't a feel good movie by any means, but neither is it really depressing. It's a mixture of the good and the bad things in life.

It's always nice to get more from a movie than you expected. I was expecting to see a simple drama about the suburban family, starring my favorite actress. Instead, I found a story with all the richness of a good novel. It was even narrated, which contributed even more to the novel-like experience. If you have the patience to slowly build toward the pay-off of a well told story, and an affinity for characters that struggle with very human flaws, then Little Children is a movie that you must see.