Little Children Review

It's probably fair to say that American suburbia probably isn't regarded as the utopian ideal it once was. Gone are the halcyon days of white picket fences and apples pies cooling on windowsills. Instead - thanks largely to TV shows and movies such as "Desperate Housewives" and "American Beauty" - we've seen a darker, more fraught example of the American dream. And writer / director Todd Field's ("In The Bedroom") bleak movie certainly doesn't improve the 'burbs image.

Kate Winslet stars as Sarah, a mildly depressed mother who strikes up a friendship with equally jaded stay-at-home Dad Brad (Patrick Wilson - "Hard Candy") when they meet at the local playground. However this friendship soon develops into a torrid affair which could just serve as a way out foir both from lives that haven't turned out the way they'd hoped. Meanwhile the rest of the neighbourhood is up in arms against a registered sex offender who has just moved back into his mother's house in the area.

Intricately layered and, at times, a savage examination of 'everyday' life, "Little Children" is bound to draw parallels with "American Beauty" - right down to the narration which overlays both films. But this film is very much from a woman's perspective and shows how the monotony of motherhood, coupled with a seriously floundering marriage, can lead to desperate measures.

As the film progresses we are treated to unlikely twists while Field wracks up the tension towards the end, all of which points towards a truly tragic finale. Whether or not he delivers we won't say but well before then he's done more than enough to get us thinking.