“Have you ever thought about the term ‘homeland security’? I mean really thought about it?” The question is posed in Todd Field’s not-so-subtle Little Children, a film that doesn’t necessarily fit within the post-9/11 canon, but certainly features that high-strung, misguided “treat level red” frame of mind-where we protect our communities by accusing and terrorizing our neighbours, and shelter our children from the evils of the outside world only to trap them in our own bubble of abuse.
Though the purely political references may be strained in this darkly satirical, suburban drama, they provide one of the themes that make Little Children an unrelenting, unforgiving, unsettling portrait of contemporary middle America.
It should come as no surprise that the “children” of the title are not stubborn toddlers, but parents who hide their own carnal nastiness behind a facade of playground innocence.
Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson shine as Sarah and Brad, two melancholy suburbanites who shirk their respective child-rearing obligations to embark on a clandestine affair. Their routine, which begin with wholesome outings to the public swimming pool with children in tow, end with raw, instinctive animal sex at Sarah’s house while their spouses work and their children sit neglected in the next room.
The only time they pay any attention to their children is while they’re in the vicinity of Ronnie McGorvey (James Earle Haley), a recently released sex offender whom the community is dead set on demonizing.
Writer/director Todd Field (In the Bedroom) together with Tom Perrotta (author of the acclaimed novel on which the film is based) adapt Little Children into a smart and burning reflection on parental refusal to accept responsibility as adults. They show Sarah and Brad as selfish, immature brats, unwilling to feel guilt for regularly engaging in their illicit version of a schoolyard recess, and ignoring the harm they subject their own children to.
Amidst all of the couple’s inadequacies, the sleazy Ronnie actually gives them an opportunity to act like concerned, and therefore adequate, parents. And while the notion of “homeland security” proves to be the perfect foil for parents trying to draw the curtains over their own faults, Ronnie becomes a prime scapegoat for their paranoia.
Though parallels to the “war on terror” are a bit out of step for a film of this nature, they don’t trip up its subversive power. Little Children could simply be considered the post-9/11 answer to American Beauty, complete with a brand new way to look down on white picket-fence patriots.
Rating: VVVVv
