The routine of the American middle class in suburban paradise
The corruption of family life, beautiful sex, American middle class, magnificent realism, symbolism and constant context - this is all that Todd Field very tightly packed us in one meter, inviting Kate Winslet, who was blooming at that time in maximum degree, and autistic macho Patrick Wilson, who did not have time to get involved in all these Astrals and Conjuring, finally losing his dramatic role.
The metaphorical solution of the film through children is a great script. The film is teeming with children, and this is always a very touching picture for most. But this is the background, and against the background of this, sometimes not touching events occur, but sometimes even disgusting, which the viewer is unlikely to judge, because in each hero he can see a particle of himself. In the Russian box office, the film for some reason translated “Like small children”, but in the original it is called “Little children”. This title is the whole point, it creates a visible subtext, and adding the word “how” all the subtext is revealed. Very clumsy.
The realism of the life of the middle class of Americans reveals very pressing and familiar problems that Hollywood usually tactfully bypasses, preferring drive, action, vulgar machismo and gloss. Deep down, he feels compassion in the film for a lonely pervert-pedophile who absurdly tries to find himself in a new world, after trials and punishment, a colossal tragedy that causes more sympathy and affection than the characters of the main character’s wife and a paranoid cop with leaflets. Everyone wants happiness, but everyone takes different paths. This film will not like couples, they will long after it avoid those that raises this movie, this film, despite its fullness of something warm, digs up the tragedy of living life, everyday life, relationships.
A separate theme that can also hit the nerves of many "happy couples" in the film is the thread of sexuality issues through the bare prism of housebuilding, social contexts of rules and wild internal contradictions. Even after falling in love, some people feel guilty that they have allowed themselves so much “base weakness.” You will not see any new stereotypes here, but how juicy the old and good ones are shown - with more than enough. And this is you and me on screen again. We who condemn a maniac, a pervert living near us, an alcoholic or a drug addict.
The psychosocial tangle in this picture simply goes overboard with a variety of types: we meet both naive philistines, confused and dissatisfied with their lives, whose activities blindly unfold in the routine order of everyday life, and burdened with an unclean conscience fascist fighters with “perverts”, and unfortunate exhibitionists-pedophiles who have nothing to do with cruel maniacs, but, rather, are victims of unsuccessful socialization. And if you continue to arrange everything in the language of the psychoanalyst, then all these figures enter into direct or indirect relationships in the limited territory of a materially prosperous American suburb, giving rise to a quite interesting story, which you want to return to once again after watching, in order to pay more attention to its sensual and semantic shades. The film has wonderful references to gender, psychoanalysis, French literature and feminism, but unfortunately it cannot be considered as a full-fledged intellectual work of art because of the unfortunate ending in the spirit of edifying and didactic metanarrative.
It will be a light electric shock, routine is not a sentence, circumstances decide. Good to see you!
The ending here is from some other movie. Maybe it’s for the best, although I personally think that seeing yourself and others from the outside is already valuable for any man or woman. The melodrama, which is more likely to please the beautiful half of humanity, within half an hour evolves into a drama with elements of a thriller (which, however, we were warned at the beginning of the viewing).
Perhaps, such a course of events of the film was supposed to make some group of people think. I don't know, I don't know. The shocking outcome leads to the fact that the first half of the film, in general, is erased from memory.
The ending of the film forms an unconscious prohibition not only not to go to Africa to walk, but even not to think about it. And Africa here is your own childhood, where the problems of adulthood grow. As a negative motivation for such excursions, the threat of losing this life as it is now is proposed.
And this is a film about female intuition, against which a rational approach sometimes gives men no more than blind kittens can get - mother's milk.
7 out of 10
We all have a child in us for the rest of our lives. Someone this is expressed in curiosity and desire to know, someone in the desire to try something forbidden, someone in irrepressible love for his mother, and someone in uncontrollable aggression.
At first glance, it may seem that before us is an ordinary melodrama about the boring life of mothers in a small town, in whose life there is only that gossip, discussion of childhood problems and dreams about the only man they see during the day. But it's just a background where it's so convenient to show how we all work. We all get bored of monotony at some point, especially when this monotony makes it impossible to be alone. So Sarah, tired of the daily groundhog day house-child-walk-home, reacts to the slightest sign of attention from Brad, tired, however, from the same daily routine. And here it is not even surprising how she attracted him, when his wife has the appearance of a supermodel, and he did not even like Sarah outwardly. And it's also not surprising how she began to go crazy with "falling in love," which is more like teenage behavior. After all, life has become so gray and suffocating that any slight bright spot turns into an Event. And so began these blamed by the surrounding mothers (that is, the society of this town) relationships of Sarah and Brad, in which neither love nor passion was not. I just wanted to get away from the routine.
No less logical is the behavior of mentally ill Ronnie and Larry, as if written off from typical school couples of “rogue and bully”. Yes, it seems that these are adults who have managed to live and break wood. But can life be considered an appendage of the mother? Is it possible to consider life to exist with an obsession with wanting to hurt someone you don’t like? Their existence (or otherwise not to be called) seems like a caricature - but the sadness is that such people exist. Their lives are filled with the daily need to argue with someone, or blindly follow all the instructions of their mother. And identity disappears. And, unfortunately, as it happens in life, it is necessary, in parental language, to “finish” – to destroy the symbiosis “mother-son”, and “bully” to become the cause of this. Only then does the veil fall and people become themselves.
"Like little kids." Fielda is like an emphatically monotonously unfolding picture of how gray life forces you to do things that no one in their right mind would ever do. The gray colors of everyday life are combined with the bright colors of the pool, as the only place where there is at least some joy and outlet for the main characters. Interestingly, even scenes with sex are gray - after all, there is no love, and even intimacy instantly becomes routine.
Here in the comments below, someone wrote - well, why are these people having an affair on the side, as if they have no sense of responsibility? I want to ask, “Where are the brains?” These same “brains” are in one of the clan of mothers, a blonde who always has everything right, you can’t look at kisses, and even make fun of someone inappropriate. But I am sure that even in her quiet pool there must have been a desire to “infuriate” – because her behavior seems to have become tougher when looking at Sarah and Brad – is it not out of envy? We are all not without sin, as they say, and such a picture only pushes to the fact that you need not allow excesses in your pair and give your inner child free will when it no longer becomes something shameful.
8 out of 10
Life is just an amazing thing, and the most amazing thing is that it can’t be put under certain limits, standards, or boundaries. There is no textbook in which it is indicated how to live and it is this that completely separates the way we see our life and how we build it with our own hands. Some devote themselves to a career, actively earn a lot of money and support their family, while others do not live, and fleetingly exist without realizing their role in this life, place or purpose. Whatever it is, we build our lives with our own hands and it depends on us what it will be. But unlike most films that raise this issue, this film directed by Todd Field goes a different way.
The director of the film Todd Field did not investigate the cause, effects and motives, but literally threw his heroes into a real pit, in which people are already brewing in their juice. People whose lives only boil down to constant thinking and unnecessary, gossip about others and burning their lives at the office desk and computer. People who are not perfect in themselves, but sin by condemning others. Almost throughout the film, the director of the film Todd Field tries to reach the viewer with thoughts that there is no ideal life and a person will always find something to find fault with. Having a beautiful wife, a man can desire a woman "far from the first freshness." A person who has committed a fatal mistake is ready to destroy the life of another person for making another mistake.
The whole film is built around the fact that everyone has problems and not necessarily yours is more important than others. Just what is in your hands is whether to let them or not. In fact, how to make your life better, and not even deeper into the quicksand of your own mistakes, which you do not learn and in this title of the picture perfectly describes the overall ideological basis of the picture. It would seem that all the main characters of the film are adults who live adult lives, work, swear, reconcile and just live. But contrary to expectations, alas, they commit absolutely rash, rash and absolutely stupid actions. Like little kids. Whether it is the heroes of Winslet and Wilson, who were captured by an inexplicable passion, or the hero of Emmerica, who turned out to be fanatically obsessed with confronting the child pervert hero Haley.
The director of the film Todd Field managed to do what absolutely no one had ever done before - to shoot the second "American Beauty" and perhaps not even weaker than director Sam Mendes. Visually, the film looks incredibly stylish, and the narrative of the picture turned out to be very smooth and whole. What is a huge rarity for modern cinema and it is a similar approach to creating a picture in combination with a sufficiently bright author's handwriting and magically exciting when watching this tape.
The main advantage of the picture is a truly magnificent cast, which literally relies on unconditionally talented actors. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson have played some of the best roles in their careers. Both actors are so much dissolved in their images that to watch them incredible pleasure and so lively characters performed by anyone I have not seen for a long time. Incredibly good Jackie Earl Haley, whose hero at the same time causes both condemnation and disgust, and some sympathy and this ambiguity makes a strong impression of his game. Good and such actors as Jennifer Connelly and Noah Emmerick , the impression of the game which does not spoil even the outright secondary of their characters on the screen.
8 out of 10
How Little Children is a very unusual, magically engaging and profound dramatic film about ordinary people like all of us. People with the same problems, thoughts, shortcomings and advantages, but alas, do not learn from their own mistakes. Perhaps one of the most unusual paintings we have ever seen.
It’s hard to say exactly what this film is about. It’s about living in a small town where everyone knows each other. And then about love for a partner, for children, for people in general, about perversion and compassion, about lying to someone and to yourself.
I really liked it. I'm just thrilled with the plot building and the sometimes original narrative. Operating work is perfect, honed, measured in a line. Every frame is like a picture. Acting at the height: Kate Winslet, as usual, amazing and incredibly beautiful, Patrick Wilson played a great father who is not the head of his own house and even in his own head, Jackie Earl Hale turned out a wonderful, frightening, crazy character, and all the others also perfectly performed the roles of sane and not very heroes, each of which has a clearly spelled character, and some and a small story.
In general, it turned out a little exaggerated, but, nevertheless, a serious picture, which with its external beauty makes you think about many things. Or about one thing, here is what will catch the viewer more - catching in the film is enough.
8 out of 10
You can see all the dirt and show it. But why?
You can live with one woman, and with another to change and talk, not imbued with soul to either. But why?
You can get married and feel unhappy with boredom and not be able to find a common language with your child, dreaming of running away from him. But why?
Heroes do not know what they want from life. Feellessly and pointlessly shunned from side to side. What is the point of looking at them?
Adults, and behave ... no, not like small children. Like animals.
A perverted ideology, the film presents us with betrayal and cattle-like relationships as a way of freedom, a way to combat routine and routine. What's next? By this logic, one must change one’s whole life in search of novelty and adventure. Freedom and the struggle for happiness will always be a good excuse.
What about the main character? The wife is working hard, and he does not know where to put himself out of boredom. To prepare for the exam, he is lazy, it is better to spend time with someone else's wife and sit on his own neck. He's really pathetic.
But in this film, a maniac with a psychosexual disorder causes more pity than the main characters.
Unbearably boring, but waited until the end, expecting that at least in the end I will see the meaning of this creation. But no. Nope. Two hours wasted in self-harm.
What did Todd Field and Tom Perrotta want to say??
P.S. And I can’t remember in which film Winslet would save the audience from contemplating her body. Only in the Magical Land did she get naked.
In general, the film made me nauseous.
Routine and boredom, they are familiar to everyone, and so I want sometimes, when this begins to strangle you from the inside, I want to add something fresh to my life. Just a similar problem and how to get out of the vicious circle of everyday life, and asked at first “Like little children” Todd Field. You can put it more banal theme is somewhat similar to “American Beauty” and a couple of similar family, serious dramas. The problem is a midlife crisis that is waiting for each of us, and someone will get there sooner.
Not much about the film itself, the technical side is good, but not perfect, the script is smooth, the actors are excellent, especially the inconspicuous heroine Kate Winslet and the lawyer played by Patrick Wilson.
Actually, their relationship, stepping on the forbidden stage, it is this chemistry and is the main theme of this two-hour look at the lives of average Americans.
I will try to draw a conclusion, but if you say what the content of this film really is, it will be banal - about ordinary life, and it is not poorly conveyed here, along with artistic elements, looks not in one breath, but interest in it persists.
We meet several families from a typical American town. Sarah is a mother and wife, an intelligent and educated young woman who, unlike her neighbors, is driven crazy by her job as a housewife. Inside her, unrealized emotions and feelings boil, which, finding no way out, burn her from the inside, affecting her mental state. Sarah lives under the same roof with her husband and capricious daughter who ignores her, in the evenings she does sports walking in the local forest park zone with a friendly neighbor and attends meetings of the collective reading club - in my opinion, she is the collective image of millions of women living in suburbia.
Brad is a young man who spends time with his young son while his overbearing wife, with whom he mostly communicates through notes, works. Desperate to find a way out of the male energy inside him, he agrees to a crazy offer to join the local football team - training helps him feel like a man again.
Both Sarah and Brad are desperate to find a way out of their suffocating lives and find an outlet in each other. The romance between a man and a woman turns out to be the brightest event for them in many years spent in golden cages. Not changing outwardly in the presence of spouses and acquaintances and leading the former measured life, they experience strong, frenetic feelings about their relationship.
Another central character of the film is one of the residents of the town, who was recently released from prison, where he was serving a sentence for pedophilia. He is hunted by parents concerned for the safety of children. Ronald actually becomes an outcast and cannot even visit a more or less crowded place without being insulted and ridiculed. He is a deeply unhappy, compassionate man; he understands that the hatred of others is deserved because he has committed a monstrous crime, but cannot control his psychosexual disorder. Ronald lives with his elderly mother, who ardently loves his son, despite one mistake he made, and tries to improve the life of a driven man, for example, trying to protect him from pursuers and arrange his personal life. The head of the committee of parents who are struggling with living next door to their children is a pervert - a former police officer who was demoted because he accidentally killed a child with a gun shot.
Using the example of the main characters, who are overwhelmed by polar feelings, and who can not be judged without learning about the root causes of their actions, the filmmakers show us that nothing is unambiguous, including the suburbs known for tranquility and prosperity. If at first glance it seems that life on flat streets and in similar houses is measured and without shocks, then in fact it turns out that the ideal course of life hides residents, saturated with the benefits of civilization and suffering from the monotony of their idyll - and therefore capable of the most desperate actions. Stupid marriage, fears, inner emptiness, prejudice, even pedophilia - the suburbia in this film is presented as fertile ground for human experiences; and the contrast between the outside and the inside: the quiet streets and the deep human dramas that take place on them can be striking.
Motherly love is what is highest on earth. A feeling that is more important than the surrounding material world. The whole program of our lives is laid in childhood by our mothers. This love breathes into us the spirit of aspirations, the desire to live, makes us strong adults who are able to withstand everyday adversity. But this happens only when the mother has harmony in the marital relationship. Otherwise, she ties the child to herself. Depriving him of normal communication with the surrounding world.
In the film, a girl who has suffered a sexual assault in the past meets Roni, who has just been released from prison, where he was imprisoned for exhibitionism. These two people are very similar. They both have difficulty communicating with the outside world. They can't both start a family. In the case of the girl, everything is clear, her psychological trauma is to blame for the bandits who attacked her. No one attacked Roni. Just all his life he lived with his mother, who through dimensional care of him, not allowing to become a real adult. There is another young married couple in the film. The relationship is far from perfect. Although unemployed Brad devotes all his time to communicating with his young son, the child does not accept him. He wears a clown cap, thus shielding himself from his father. But he is very close to his mother. It seems that Sarah considers her son to be her husband. Delusions are generally beyond the family relationship. Adults in this family communicate extremely coldly.
We cannot change the past, but the future can be different. It's all up to us. In this phrase, sounded at the end of the film, is the whole meaning of the picture. Roni's life can't be changed. But the boy in the clown cap is just beginning to live. It all depends on his parents. If they can love each other. They'll treat him right. Then their son will grow into a worthy adult. But if things stay the same, he'll repeat Roni's fate. Roni's behavior is that of a young child. But if an adult behaves in a childlike manner, in the eyes of society he becomes a pervert.
The film “Like small children” is a textbook on the psychology of relationships. Very deep, well-made cinematic work.
While watching the film, imbued as usual with the moods of the main characters, it seemed to me that I was choking. I'm breathing like Sarah. Sarah is a typical American housewife, all the time busy with a naughty little daughter and walks on the playground, where she is forced to listen to the goofy chatter of mothers. She lives in a large, well-maintained house and she has a husband, to the shameful fascination with a whore Sarah reacts rather indifferently. A hopeless routine unbearably strangles a young woman and she looks for salvation from this in an equally choking Brad, a young father forced to sit in the dungeon of everyday monotony.
Their relationship can hardly be called love. Rather, each was a salvation for the other. This is metaphorical, but eloquently pointed out by the authors of the film through the lips of Brad’s wife:
Trying something new, he feels that he is living.
On the part of Sarah, this act looks like a pronounced rebellion, as evidenced by a transparent parallel with the heroine of the novel by Madame Bovary. Sarah chose to struggle with a life full of suffering rather than craven humility with her. And indeed there is something beautiful and even heroic about her rebellion.
I don't think their forbidden relationship was a misdeed, a mistake in everyone's fate. Not at all. It was this period that gave both of them a reason to rethink their lives, to set their priorities correctly, and this was the impetus for a new stage, for the future, which must begin with something.
“Like Little Children” is another film in the series “Cinema is not for everyone”, and such films are always doubly attractive, because they do not leave anyone indifferent. Some find such films exquisite and aesthetic, others - unacceptable and second-rate. And this film was no exception, but I liked this movie, although I don’t think I want to see it again, except that once in a couple of years.
The film is remarkable not so much for its plot, but, oddly enough, for its prosaic nature. We see ordinary people with the usual family problem of cooling relationships after several years of marriage. This often happens not only in an already formed family, but also in a simple relationship. Someone overcomes this problem quickly, someone anticipates it in advance and prevents the consequences, and someone, like our main characters, succumbs to the influence of this difficulty and does things that later regrets. Such a topical and, at the same time, difficult topic cannot but attract, so I could not take my eyes off the screen while watching this film. The story is slow, but it is not long. It goes smoothly and the plot develops evenly. There is no such thing that in 15-20 minutes all the subtleties of the plot are revealed to us and a huge amount of information is provided, which leads to the fact that all subsequent vicissitudes do not seem to us as such. Perhaps this is the reason for such a close look.
Also in the film plays a worthy actor- Patrick Wilson, the incomparable Kate Winslet and the incomparable Jennifer Connelly. It was a pleasure to watch them, although I did not expect anything else from such a cast.
If you analyze the film a little deeper, then there is a philosophical subtext, which everyone will interpret differently in accordance with their morality and moral foundations. Everyone can take something out of this movie, which is a huge plus. The only disadvantage for me was the camera work. At the beginning of the film, she was not distinguished by virtuosity, but did not interfere with the pleasure of this film, but somewhere after the middle of the film, the operator began to do strange things, and two or even three plans were simply terrible, in the future the operator ceased to interfere with viewing. I think people who have seen the film will understand what I mean.
To sum up the final line, I can say that this film is worthy of your attention. It begins easily and at ease, but in the course of its development it will grab your heart more than once, there are several strong and difficult moments, there is also a share of unruly seditious seditiousness, which is very skillfully served. Despite some monochromaticity of what is happening, I remember the film and sometimes even impressed. If you want to reflect on the frailty of being that surrounds us in the most ordinary situations, then I safely recommend this film to you. And if you do not welcome ambiguity in the movie, then this film is unlikely to appeal to you.
Sometimes you are surprised by the actions of adults.
When I first saw this movie, I was so excited! The picture tells several stories at once, in one story. Talking to her friends because of the children who need to come to kindergarten, Sarah meets a “colleague” in kindergarten Brad. From the first meeting, feelings arise between them. Beyond this love, the film tells about a maniac pedophile.
The script written by Todd Field and Tom Perrotta is absolutely stunning. It is interesting that they managed to combine two different stories for the same film. It is interesting to describe the life of American people, the life of the main character, who is tired of everyday life, who is bored with monotony, who wants changes in personal happiness. And on the other hand, her “partner” is described, who seems to have everything and much better in personal happiness with his wife, but the problem is that his wife does not believe in him and his abilities in life. And if the picture described only this story, then for many (except for those who love drama) it would not be so interesting and I think it would be “prolonged”. But the screenwriters took everything into account and added something that simply cannot be believed - a maniac pedophile, played by Jackie Earl Haley, who managed to simply brilliantly enter the role and transfer the character. It is the role of this character that will allow viewers to break away from the main characters-lovers and make them arrive in psychological stress, since it is unclear what to expect from this person. In addition to all the roles played by Haley, Winslet and Patrick Wilson – on top. Personally, I would mention Haley and Winslet and not only because they were nominated for Oscars, no, I just think they better reflected their characters, managed to realistically show the game without any hesitation. As for Wilson, the game is not bad, but I did not have enough to see the sincerity in his every intention, somehow he did not quite reproduce (play) “special” moments, but this, if you pick on too much, in general, the game is good and he also gives his charm, uncertainty in life and misunderstanding about real things.
The director-director, he is also a screenwriter - Todd Field showed the viewer a drama with a new plot, previously not shown, on the one hand everyday problems, but on the other with the addition of a new story and a beautiful production, since it is thanks to the director that the picture looks on one breath and with complete interest. I am very glad that such a tape has been added to the cinema, it is relevant for all times, because it tells and confirms once again that there are no happy and unpunished endings.
8 out of 10
People live. They live and live. On the one hand, they are simply insulted by life and it seems to them that they do not live at all, but simply exist. It’s like there’s nothing worth waking up for. I'm fed up. One has only to pay attention to them, to make it clear that they are interesting, and these people rush headlong to the abyss, believing that this is life. How young children are led to someone else's candy, which they do not have. Prosaic story, repeatedly raised in cinema. And it's silence, when spouses just choose to turn a blind eye to what they know, just because it's better. It's silence. It's so vital. But what happened? Once the real stress invades their lives, everything falls into place. It should be.
As for the second line. I kept waiting for them to really cross paths, but no. No such incident occurred.
We're being forced to pity the person I would castrate. Do you often feel sorry for people like that? I never did. But there is no pure evil, it is all fiction cartoons. And we're proving it again. Losing a man. The only person who believed in you no matter what. In spite of your huge misconduct. Just loved and believed - incredibly painful and hard. But the quintessence becomes four words. Please be a good boy. And he will.
I was very moved by the idea in the end. Thank you very much
The main impetus to viewing was the review of the film as a deep study on the topic of lies and hypocrisy, but it is rather a fairy tale for adults, filled with narrative and naivety characteristic of fairy tales. The director presents a funny look at the relationship of adults, kidals and children, and the most reasonable look the latter, whose whims are harmless and insignificant. If the former possesses an inexorable life-confidence, which includes a constant renunciation of desires, the latter cannot cope with feelings, responsibility, or themselves. They are thrown from side to side on the swing of life, as if they were moving, constantly standing at the same crossroads. No matter how much they are pushed by someone, for the most part they swing themselves and you will also have to stop yourself.
The main storyline is occupied by the relationship of a clumsy mother with an unemployed father, which arose on the playground in front of adults who reacted to an innocent kiss many times more emotionally than the children present. Based on a simple idea, the film is filled with a bunch of similar situations, swirling around lovers who are unhappiness in marriage, fiddling with children and eager to escape.
Naive feelings, in fact, reign throughout the town, when everyone is afraid of the local pervert, like a monster from the closet, when the former policeman, imagining himself a hero, fights with the embodiment of evil, when this most evil continues to feel like a child thanks to the caress of his mother, when a jealous wife of curiosity climbs under the table for the sake of a writer imagines herself a rebel from a novel and when a future lawyer nostalgs for riding a skateboard. In many cases, the extreme is average, which is why the question of growing up remains relative to me, and this film is interesting.
Which is easier? Color your own gray family life or find an adventure on the side? Of course the second. That's what many people do. So did the heroes of this picture.
But don’t think, this is not another drama about adultery. This is a rich, fascinating and very easy story about the role of passion and sex in our lives. Even Grandpa Freud said that without him can not. If you turn family routines into a clear schedule, work into life, children into its only meaning, you can only wait for the soul and body to explode with the desire for something new, forbidden.
It's good. Actors play flawlessly, do not even play, live. You get involved from the first minute and (which is very good) do not know how it will end. The style of the picture can be compared to Desperate Housewives. Having a storyteller makes it even more laid-back and interesting. Aftertaste is very pleasant, easy. And I also love when after the film is over, the director leaves a certain understatement, and you can think of what happened next.
9 out of 10
When you watch this movie, it feels like you are immersed in a book. We see the routine life of the main characters, their thoughts and secret desires. The main character named Sarah, performed by Oscar winner Kate Winslet, lives an ordinary life: a house, a husband, a child, walks to the park with her daughter and boring conversations with ordinary friends. Everything changes when she meets Brad, played by Patrick Wilson. They both have spouses, but then the feelings wake up, and comes to the main characters a fierce and absorbing sense of love.
Why should I watch this movie?
First, for the brilliant performance of the actors. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson shine chicly on screen and make up an unforgettable, hot duo. With them in the film there are many unforgettable, erotic scenes that can not be forgotten. Actress Jennifer Connelly, who plays the protagonist's wife, also sparks interest in the film. I think it’s very appropriate for her to play roles like wives who are cheated on by husbands. She already had a similar role in the film “Promise does not mean to marry”.
Second, for the atmosphere of the film. It is very unusual, you will understand it when you watch this movie.
Third, the cinematography in this film will intrigue your imagination. I really enjoyed it.
I remember how Sarah vividly and obsessively defended the heroine of the novel “Modam Bovary”, I think she imagined herself as this heroine. Sarah justified Modham Bovary's actions with a thirst for an alternative. I concluded that she was justifying herself by cheating on her husband and wishing to have another opportunity in life to love someone else.
The pedophile in this film, played by Jackie Earl Haley, on the one hand is so unpleasant and disgusting, and on the other for some reason causes sympathy. And all because he's so brilliantly played by Jackie Earl Haley. Pedophiles have never sympathized with me in any film, but there is always an exception.
The film is made believably, the actors have become so used to their roles that I can’t imagine anyone else in place. "Like little children" - a movie, watching which is mandatory!
9 out of 10
I watched it twice. The second time, of course, the impression was more complete.
Here she is, Kate’s heroine – lonely, unhappy, completely unfit for this life. Raising a child weighs on her. She is always immersed in her thoughts, among friends-housewives feels a stranger. I forgot breakfast for the baby. Being is not hers.
Brad does not know how to earn money, as he is always immersed in his dreams. But he's a great housekeeper. She cooks well and enjoys walking with her baby. It seems like everything is fine...
But here they are – both subtle, sensitive and equally detached from life, suddenly meet each other. And they can give each other what their practical spouses-earners can not give them because of a certain temper.
I read an article on this topic somewhere on my blog. The basic idea was: don’t look for princes, give up your illusions. It is necessary to choose those with whom it is convenient, reliable responsible, not flying in the clouds. If two poets meet, and everyone will be so sublime that there is simply no one to take out the garbage, I will exaggerate this, of course.
Now, Sarah and Brad's love can only exist in this form of infidelity, because they can't start a family. And Brad understood that.
And when he, under the influence of his feelings, persuaded Sarah to run away. But he was injured after jumping on a skateboard - he was lying and smiling - either because he had finally fulfilled a childhood dream, or because he had a good reason not to arrive at the meeting place.
You know, someone once said, "The degree of maturity is determined by the number of brutally killed illusions."
I used to not understand why people get married, first for love, but years go by and they start cheating on each other. And only after watching this film I realized - because you need to escape from everyday life, you need at least a drop of novelty, at least a drop of romance.
But the film is not even about that.
Ronnie. A wretched creature who can't do anything about his twisted nature. Here is another story about how blind and ruthless people can be in trying to defend their rights through public persecution. It's like it'll make someone feel better.
How many such stories have there been "Monster", "Boy A". I'm glad there are people who can see the picture from the other side.
Ronnie reminded me of Dostoevsky’s hero, Svidrigailov. The actor is amazing. He's not handsome. But what a vivid and insightful eyes he has!
Sarah's husband - who has not been interested in his wife for a long time. Why? Because he needs hard sex, he needs an aggressive bitch. Otherwise, he just doesn't have to. For obvious reasons.
What unites them all? They are all typical people with typical problems and tragedies. And whoever we are, how smart, refined, sublime, somehow it so happens that sex passes through our lives as a red thread, and forces us to obey our call. He cripples our fates, he decides what to choose for us. Animal nature often conquers everything else.
10 out of 10
Someone comes across this feeling of growing up in a special, slightly sharp, sometimes carelessly and hastily, someone does not believe in him and tries to push him away. He doesn’t believe it, he later resigns and regrets it. Strange, inexplicable feeling. How do you feel about it?
It is not the numbers on the birthday cake or the passport with a ridiculous (as it often happens) photo, it is quite different. It is in this awareness or becoming of oneself, in this harmony of inner and outer.
Like Little Children is not a film about family. Not about betrayal, intrigue, and other grayness. Not about sex or love.
This is a picture of how quickly we try to get rid of our inner child and become adults. This happened to Sarah, the main character. She very early crushed her childhood, building a family relationship with a completely stranger to her person, living in an uninteresting small town, communicating with limited and rude neighbors. Inside herself, she grew older, her skin and heart wrinkled and, probably, even less contracted from anguish. Tired eyes, untidy hairstyle, it was only despair. Desperation and boredom.
On the contrary, the second character is the personification of youth. Energetic, cheerful laughter, charming smile, coupled with an attractive sexual body. Sarah needed such a meeting, in this of his ... childhood. She reached for her, tried to grab like the last ticket for the fast train, the next to the final stop "I'll be happy."
Like Little Children is not a film about reciprocity, it is a film of dissonance, inner growing up and attitude in general. I hope you will be interested in seeing this picture from this point of view.
And, please, do not try to destroy the child in you - a pure and sincere person who intuitively chooses the most real feelings. This is the part of you that will always speak the truth.
Todd Field created an interesting and exciting story about the relationship between two people who want to somehow change their daily life, as well as the storyline of a maniac who did not try to hide his secret desires and a former police officer who fiercely tries to influence Ronnie’s fate. The plot of the film unfolds in a small American town where idyllic, routine and monotony reign, but only one moment can diversify all the longing of gray everyday life, which in the future will give hope for a bright future of the heroes.
Brad is a kind, sensitive, caring father, besides an incredibly charming and attractive “prom star”. He is characterized by the rashness of his misdeeds, naivety and childish dreaminess. Sarah is the mother of baby Lucy, a woman who has lost herself, and lives in the hope of getting rid of the mundane and hopelessness of her life. One day, the fates of young parents intertwine and give them those emotions that they so lacked in their marital relationship before meeting each other; feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction of their secret desires.
I remember a moment when I compared Mrs. Bovary to Sarah. "There's something beautiful and heroic about her rebelliousness" - talking about the novel, Sarah seemed to describe her life, not regretting anything done.
In parallel with the love story, the story of a maniac and Larry plays out. Watching the nonsense that Larry made around the story with Ronnie, involuntarily recalls the Russian folk proverb “in someone else’s eye to see straw, in your own – a log not to notice.”
Of course, the charming Kate Winslet coped with her role perfectly, and Patrick Wilson got used to the role of a small adult. I want to note that the role of maniac Ronnie was ideally picked up by Jackie Earl Haley. Fantastic performance of all actors is a huge plus in the evaluation of the film. Shooting, stories of heroes, places of reversal of events - all aspects of cinema at a height.
This film encourages you to think about life values and put everything in its place. I suggest you watch it.
What could be worse than the horror of everyday life? pathetic, infirm attempts to transform everything around in ' extraordinary'? sluggish rafting overgrown with rotting algae after a long gray winter, a river that ends everyone knows where and how?
Life in the picture of T. Field is depicted quite joyless. Not happy - neither a beautiful wife, nor a cozy house, nor growing up wonderful children, and the attempt to escape from the annoying cozy routine, brings you back. To your place. Only on the next step of the squirrel wheel, a small, plastic, green wheel with the remains of litter, on which it is so easy to slip and roll your overgrown soft hair neck. We all turn the wheel, it has to turn, which means life goes on. There's no point, there's no purpose, and the little slippery heaps on the steps add to the acuity, the adventure, and the significance.
Children are selfish, and so are the characters. Enjoying each other, seizing the opportunity to re-experience the taste of life with the force with which we feel it only in childhood, they seem ready to sacrifice the lives of those closest to them to their own well-being. And what else is it that selfishness does not stop them?
Will a person grow up? Or he only changes with the passage of time, overgrown with a shell of responsibility, morality, prudence (or only their appearance), and melting inside, in the very core, a selfish child, hungry for a new bright toy that he will still get tired of, and he will fall asleep in an embrace with an old bear with a salivated paw and a severed ear, but such a native, ... smelling home.
Everyone answers these questions in their own way, but it is clear that a child cannot be forced to go in a chair if he does not want to, and a mother loves her child, even if he is not the most beautiful, intelligent, and, in general, not a good person!
8 out of 10
Why on the other side? The picture shows us what a person sometimes does not notice, or does not specifically want to see. Moral value, morality and rules, what people invented for themselves, because it is easier to live: ' Correct'
People who have families and have invented a world in which everything is clear and true, calling themselves adults, which they are, in principle, without specifically noticing the world, that very world, without rules, which is something sinful and vicious for them, sincerely protecting their children from what they themselves dream about, but are afraid to admit. . . From ourselves.
After watching the film, there is this very feeling, shameful in our world, a sense of condescension to people who are mentally ill, to a hero who clearly admits that he is the pedophile. The picture makes you understand him, a madly unhappy man, powerless before his illness.
The film is probably the brightest fragment from the lives of the heroes, the current situation, a series of accidents and events that decorated the gray everyday life of people from a small town. Destroyed hopes.
I liked the picture more than that. This is not ' action' not a sad melodrama, this is a simple excerpt from people’s lives. If you are an amateur ' peek ' behind the life of people you do not know, a voyeur, in a good sense of the word, then the film is just for you.
9 out of 10
I decided to watch this movie after watching the movie. I really liked Patrick Wilson. And expectations didn't fool me. This is how, by chance, there are often stunning films that are not promoted for one reason or another. Such a hidden pearl was “Like little children.”
The title here is very important, and a Russian translation with a comparative turnover gives a good clue to the picture. All the characters behave like small children, only someone grows up, and someone remains a child for life. For example, the protagonist Brad - an infantile handsome, unemployed, walking all day with his young son, watching his body and desperately craving his childish adrenaline - watches secretly from his wife for skaters and plays football with other adult children - cops. Who's a cop, right? This is a person who lives as he is told, who does not have to make his own decisions - you just need to follow orders and job descriptions. Here's Larry - he admits he can't do anything else. Magnificently, grotesquely shown how he is completely childish, hooligan teases Roni - paints bad words outside his house, pastes leaflets, screams drunk into a megaphone under the windows of the house. So much childishness in his behavior!
Very beautifully, touchingly, gently unfolds the love story of Brad and Sarah. It's like you're getting into these nascent feelings. Only for Brad, the “eternal student” who failed to pass the bar exam, this is another prank, an opportunity to escape from the custody of his “mamashi” – his wife. And for Sarah, who graduated from her master’s degree in classical literature and Madame Bovary in particular, it’s an existential revolt, a choice she can make. It is also a somewhat childish, rather romantically youthful aspiration. But the characters of the heroes develop differently. Or rather, Brad does not develop, he remains a boy! Satisfying his childhood dream of jumping with a skate, he no longer strives anywhere. As Sarah grows up, she understands her feminine calling to be a mother.
Mother is the most important concept on which the whole film is cemented. What a hail of tears came out of my eyes when Ronnie's mother died and he was alone in the world! Objects float around him in the air, his head goes around when he realizes that his mother is gone - and this is a very strong move of the director. Through the screen, the viewer is shaken by a wave of despair that engulfed the unfortunate man. No, not a pedophile, but a man who too late understands the cruel boy Larry. And Roni will not let his late mother down, at a cruel price for himself fulfilling her last covenant: “Roni, be a good boy.” There is no one in a person’s life more important than a mother, because only she will always love you as you are, no matter what.
Excellent, painfully touching, to tears a charming film. What to say about the actors - they are on top. I finally fell in love with Patrick Wilson, that's his role, his whole life. Without Kate Winslet, there would be no Sarah either.
10 out of 10
The past cannot be changed, but the future may be very different and the future must begin somewhere. . .
After reading the audience reviews for this film, I was surprised by the so much variety of thoughts, impressions and questions that this film caused.
For me, this film is unambiguous and it is about “thinking” people who do not want to have stupid conversations with shallow people, who are used to discussing and judging everyone and even making love on a schedule, about people who do not want to be dependent on their wife and, at the same time, do not want to do something unloved. But what do you do? ...
Indicative is the conversation in the reader's club between Sarah and her friend on the playground in relation to Mrs. Bovary. “She cheats on her husband with two guys, spends money, and then gets poisoned with rat poison... she’s just a whore,” she says. Everything is simple for a person who is not used to thinking and does not try to understand. There is nothing simple in life... “She’s trapped and she can either accept a life of suffering or fight it, and she chooses to fight... it’s not about cheating, it’s about thirst for an alternative, she doesn’t want to put up with her miserable fate,” says Sarah. Do you feel the difference?
In most Soviet and post-Soviet families, since childhood, there is no interest in literature, art, music (which is also the fault of the education system), there is no respect for children as individuals, which is necessary for this grown-up child to see himself as a person, respect his interests, feel free in choice, in actions, which is so necessary for self-realization. And for our viewers, this film is doubly useful. After all, we have or will have children, and they should grow up mentally healthy, uncomplexed, interesting, thinking people who do not swim with the flow, but create their own “full” life.
The film raises the theme of understanding the perception of what we are given at birth. “Do you have a beautiful wife?” asked Sarah. “It’s beautiful, but beauty isn’t important,” Brad said. “Only a man who took his own beauty for granted could say such stupidity, and even with such a calm appearance,” the author tells us. Is there such a thing in your life? :)
As Roni’s mother tells us, “We are all amazing creatures, because every day we go about our business and despite the fuss, we know that the people we love can be lost at any moment. We always remember this and live as before. Animals are different”. Think about it.
But everything can be changed! And for some it's easy, and someone needs a push. And each of the heroes of the film has his own.
The past cannot be changed, but the future may be very different and the future must have started somewhere. . .
The film is instructive and, in our opinion, extremely simple to perceive. The voiceover makes all situations transparent and allows them to be clearly perceived. Todd Field for choosing the theme, and for how great the film turned out – bravo!
10 out of 10
I sat down in the movie room with a slight skepticism. But after half an hour I empathized with the characters and could not take off the screen. I haven’t seen this in a long time.
The movie is really catchy. I may be too sentimental, but he was able to touch the deeper notes in my soul. I agree with all the positive reviews of this film. I'll just add a few words from myself.
The film is often compared to Babylon. I don't think that's entirely true. Babylon was talking about something else. In Little Children, we see a situation where people cannot find themselves in life. What they do, they do not like, they feel that somehow exchange themselves, lose, and gradually, in small things. This is the life situation of all 4 characters. The ending is clearly not a happy ending (and for everyone), but it is quite logical.
Brad found himself. The connection with Sarah was just a new feeling for him that he had never experienced (this was discussed at the beginning of the film, after the kiss). Now he should have a new passion, and so every year (the life position of the killed soldier, about which the film was made by Brad’s wife). He did not return to his wife, as one might think, he just understood how he needed to live on.
Same with Sarah. She was saddened that the life she was living was not her life, but the life of the housewives she spent time with on the playground. Her husband is a typical office clerk, engaged in essentially empty work. Empty as he is. Her unwritten doctorate. And most importantly, her daughter, whom she did not understand. Sarah’s daughter was, in fact, a stranger, so she wanted to experience feelings (deep feelings) for another person. Like... Ah! The Thirst for Alternative! The scene at night on the playground - that's after it, Sarah realized how important her daughter is to her, and most importantly, how important she is to her daughter. This was suggested to her by the dying Roni.
That's Roni I'm most sorry for. He never had a life. Partly because of the society that rejected him, and partly because of him. He accepted himself as he was and did not want to change anything, unlike his mother. But she died, and he was only able to change himself physically, not mentally. Roni's tantrum scene is the strongest in the film. Knowing that you are completely alone in a world where no one loves you. It's really scary. It seems to me that people after watching this film will appreciate the people who love them more, and to many people the situation may even seem close. It is dangerous to be alone in this world.
With ex-cop Larry, it's more or less clear. He was thrown out of his world where he had lived before and where he liked everything. The time when he really lived was gone (by his fault or by chance - it does not matter). Other characters, I think, never experienced this ecstasy of life, although they were drawn to it. That’s why it was so important for Larry to play in the police team again, to chase and fight the pervert Roni. So he tried to bring back a sense of the past. In fact, Larry’s character is not evil (there are no such characters in the film at all and this is a plus) and not bad, just by nervous organization he was the most primitive character in the film. He had to save someone and fight someone. And at the end of the film, he experienced this feeling again, felt that he was living again.
I didn’t quite understand the author’s words at the end of the film. More precisely, I understand them, but I can not relate to the content of the film. Perhaps I look at the plot and characters of this film differently than the director.
With "Babylon" the film connects the line of loneliness stretched through the plot. People suffer from their lives, from routine, from boredom, because instinctively reach for each other (with love, with friendship). That's not what Roni does, which is why it ends so sadly for him.
I thought the film was personal or intimate. It showed life from a certain angle, which I have not seen before on the screen. And, again, touched some notes inside, seemed close, like a native person who understands you and is ready to talk heart to heart.
A small American suburb, where people who are used to routine live. They have nothing new. Women walk with children and collect gossip, their husbands lose interest in them. But everything changes when a sexual maniac returns to the suburbs after imprisonment. .
The topic of small towns is very interesting. People living in such towns always keep skeletons in the closet and will do everything that their secrets do not float out. We have several heroes: a desperate housewife who is looking for inspiration in life, her husband traded her for a virtual whore and she decides to look for something new; a young father whose wife is the mistress of the house, and he in turn can’t, does not want to take the exam for a lawyer; and a former policeman who wants to become a hero again and punish a maniac. All these people live illusions, trying to find something new in the hope that life will become better.
Every illusion breaks down, there is a limit, a limit that comes and one day you need to open your eyes and understand that there is no escape from routine, from real life, and all dreams and ambitions are destroyed before you realize it.
“Like small children” is a film about life, about some attempt of rebellion, the pursuit of illusion, escape from routine.
10 out of 10
The movie turned out to be worth it. Especially in comparison with the neighboring cinema "Babylon". The problems considered in “Little Children” are much closer and clearer than the global pathos of human misunderstanding of the Golden Globe film-winner.
This picture can cause a lot of emotions and questions, and the play of Kate Winslet and the music of Thomas Newman made it different from the already large number of dramas about American reality.