Little Children

Reviewed by:
Gene Newman

Leave it to critics to overhype the hell out of another mediocre indie film. We never watched Desperate Housewives, but assume this is an R-rated and arty take on miserable suburban women and men trapped by their kids and boring lives. A bunch of unfocused stories overlap, but it's set in motion when a convicted sex offender moves into their community. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson anchor the movie with some decent raunchy sex scenes, but the only interesting and original story line is the one about the pedophile, played by Jackie Earle Haley. We remember Haley as the cool guy in The Bad News Bears, so we were surprised to see him as a sympathetic, yet very creepy, child molester, who everyone in town gangs up on rather than facing their own severe problems. Little Children is watchable, but the tacky narrator and preposterous ending makes it especially annoying. It reminded us of American Beauty, which was nowhere near the classic critics and award givers made it out to be. Still, jerks like us hear the overwhelming praise and always end up disappointed. If anything, this is a sign that all critics who put this on a top 10 list need to be replaced immediately with people that have real opinions. Just because they're hungry for adult-contemporary fare and not the usual crap like Wild Hogs and Norbit doesn't make it the next Godfather; so get a fucking grip already.

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