Little Children

[November 15th, 2006] What kind of terrible upbringing did Todd Field have? An actor (Ruby in Paradise, Eyes Wide Shut) turned director (2001's In the Bedroom), Field was born in Pomona, Calif., but spent at least some of his youth growing up in Portland (his mother still operates a small business here). He must have been a keenly observant kid, because his two major directorial efforts are searing examinations of upper-middle-class family tensions, hypocrisies, loneliness and desire. No doubt mangled by our delightful public-school system and bored by Portland's provincialism, Field emerged damaged but unbent, which prepped him admirably for a career in both the studio and indie wings of Hollywood's industrious entertainment machine.

As a director, Field favors literary adaptations, but with an increasingly sophisticated visual style. In the Bedroom, which examined the repercussions of a son's violent death on his parents, was drawn from a novel by Andre Dubus, while his latest, Little Children, is faithfully derived from Tom Perrotta's reading-club favorite. Tapping into the media's seemingly insatiable appetite for pedophiles, Little Children tells of the intersecting lives of a sex offender and two wealthy suburbanites embroiled in an affair. From sympathetic portrayals in independent films to scarifying depictions in studio and network productions, there are more child molesters on the nation's screens of late than presidents, politicians and priests combined (though often they're the same people). But though Little Children has an essentially sympathetic view of a sex offender, fortunately, the man is not the main event. The film's focus is two refugees from a New Yorker short story, housewife Sarah (Kate Winslet) and house-husband Brad (Hard Candy's Patrick Wilson) who, during a rainstorm one day, slip into a passionate affair (you could call this one In the Laundry Room).

At first, viewers might think they're in American Beauty country, but Little Children avoids the trap of that film's condescending and divisive caricatures. Instead, you can tell that Field feels for all his characters equally. Actors must love working for the man. For one thing, he can garner them nods from Oscar. Here he elicits finely honed performances, especially from Winslet, who is moving as a desperate hausfrau who sees her creative spirit etiolated by middle-class moral rigidity and peer pressure. The film's terrific cast also includes Jennifer Connelly, Noah Emmerich and Trini Alvarado. R.