Little Children
リトル・チルドレン
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Two suburban parents begin an affair at the playground while the town hunts a sex offender.
Sarah Pierce lives in a Massachusetts suburb with her husband, Richard, and their three-year-old daughter, Lucy, and feels like an outsider among the playground mothers, who gossip about a handsome stay-at-home father they call the Prom King. He is Brad Adamson. His wife, Kathy, makes documentaries; he looks after their son, Aaron, and keeps failing the bar exam. To shock the other mothers, Sarah hugs and kisses him in front of them. They agree it meant nothing, then keep meeting at the town pool under cover of play dates.
Ronnie McGorvey, who served two years for exposing himself to a child, has come home to live with his elderly mother, May, and when he turns up snorkelling in the pool, parents haul their children out of the water. That rainy afternoon, with the children asleep upstairs, Sarah and Brad begin an affair. Sarah finds Richard addicted to internet pornography; at her book club she ends up defending Emma Bovary. Larry Hedges, a former policeman who accidentally killed a child, recruits Brad into a night football team and spends his spare hours hounding Ronnie. May, sure her son only needs a woman his own age, arranges a date for him; it ends with an obscene act in the woman's car, beside a playground. At a dinner for the two couples, Kathy sees what is going on and brings her mother to stay.
After Brad's winning touchdown in the season's last game, he and Sarah agree to run away together. One night Larry turns up outside the McGorveys' house with a megaphone and pushes May to the ground; she has a heart attack and dies in hospital. Ronnie finds her note asking him to be a good boy. On his way to meet Sarah, Brad tries a skateboard jump, knocks himself out and asks the paramedics to call his wife. Sarah waits at the playground with Lucy and finds Ronnie grieving on a swing. When Lucy wanders off, fear for her drives out everything else, and Sarah takes her home. Larry comes to apologise and finds that Ronnie has castrated himself. He rushes him to the hospital, where Kathy is arriving for Brad. The narrator closes: the past cannot be changed, but the future can, and it has to start somewhere.
Starring
Kate Winsletas Sarah Pierce
A mother at home with her small daughter in a loveless marriage, who begins an affair with a father she meets at the playground.
Sarah Pierce’s story
Sarah has a master's degree in English literature and spends her afternoons at the playground with her three-year-old, Lucy, bored by the other mothers and ill at ease with her own child. Dared to get the Prom King's phone number, she kisses Brad in front of them instead, and a summer of pool dates turns into an affair. She discovers Richard's addiction to internet pornography, and at the book club finds herself defending Emma Bovary. After Brad's winning touchdown she suggests they end it, then agrees to run away with him. That night she waits at the playground with Lucy, and Ronnie, on a swing, tells her his mother has died. When she turns round, Lucy is gone. She finds her, forgets Brad and drives her daughter home.
Patrick Wilsonas Brad Adamson
A stay-at-home father who keeps failing the bar exam, known to the playground mothers as the Prom King.
Brad Adamson’s story
Brad played quarterback at college, keeps failing the bar exam and has little interest in the law. Kathy earns the money and wants him to pass; on the evenings he says he is studying at the library, he sits on a bench watching teenagers skateboard. He begins the affair with Sarah, and Larry talks him into quarterbacking a night football team of policemen. He skips the exam again. After a dinner with the Pierces, Kathy brings her mother to stay. Once he has scored the winning touchdown, he persuades Sarah to run away with him. On the way to meet her he stops to try the skaters' jump, knocks himself out, and when he comes round asks the paramedics to call his wife. Kathy is at the hospital when he arrives.
Jennifer Connellyas Kathy Adamson
Brad's wife, a successful documentary maker, who sees the affair across a dinner table and moves to stop it.
Jackie Earle Haleyas Ronnie McGorvey
A sex offender home from prison and living with his mother, whose return fills the town with fear and fury.
Ronnie McGorvey’s story
Ronnie comes home after two years in prison for exposing himself to a child and lives with May, the one person who loves him. Flyers warn the town about him; when he goes snorkelling among the children at the pool, the police escort him out, and Larry harasses him at home. To reassure May he goes on a date she has arranged, and ends it with an obscene act in the woman's car beside a playground. One night Larry pushes May to the ground; she has a heart attack and dies in hospital. Ronnie finds her note asking him to be a good boy and smashes her figurines. On a swing in the park he tells Sarah his mother has died. Larry, coming to apologise, finds that Ronnie has castrated himself and rushes him to hospital.
Noah Emmerichas Larry Hedges
A former policeman who accidentally killed a child, befriends Brad, and turns his own turmoil on Ronnie.
Phyllis Somervilleas May McGorvey
Ronnie's elderly mother, who loves him without reservation and believes a woman his own age could change him.
Why it matters
Little Children looks at the most respectable place in American life, the suburban playground, and finds two hungers there. One belongs to Sarah and Brad: two parents at home all day with small children, restless and unseen, who fall into an affair that is as much about being looked at as about love. The other belongs to the town, which needs someone to despise and finds him in Ronnie, a man jailed for exposing himself to a child. The film never excuses him, and it never lets the neighbours' fear pass for virtue either. Tom Perrotta adapted his own novel with the director, Todd Field, and the screenplay and the performances of Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley were all nominated for Academy Awards. The question the film leaves open is an uncomfortable one: how much of adult life is spent behaving like the little children of its title.