A thread for the film "Little Children"

oh yeah, the voiceover was the best part!

I didn't hate it at all, but I was somewhat confused when I heard an interview with Todd Field afterwards, just at how carefully the film had obviously been made, in ways that left little impression on me. I feel a similar way when I read obviously intelligent, sensitive people gushing over it.

The voiceover, I didn't like, for similar reasons to the reasons I didn't like the Desperate Housewives one.

The paedophile's performance was excellent, and I loved reading of the kind of obscurity that the actor was rescued from by Field. And [SPOILER ALERT] I did like that it steered a surprising course with his fate and recidivism. The date scene was very powerful. But ultimately, I didn't feel his story meshed satisfactorily with that of the other characters. I had the feeling that it might have made more sense in the novel. And the story of the jock hounding him because of his own demons felt a bit of a blunt tool.

the narration was total WTF, caught between irony and sincerity. (sorry cutty) otherwise I already forget the rest of the movie.

"sheer competence" feels like damning w/faint praise, tho obv wasn't intended as such. a step above adequate I suppose

in fact I thought the film's reliance on narration to advance plot points & flesh out characters was extremely lazy screen-writing.

show don't tell FFS