---
title: "Little Children"
year: 2006
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/little-children"
fi1m_id: "little-children"
imdb_id: "tt0404203"
tmdb_id: 1440
wikidata_id: "Q841203"
fi1m_score: 77
critics_score: 73
critics_reviews: 12
published: "2026-10-01T19:15:31.141430+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-01T19:15:31.772396+00:00"
region: "PE"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Little Children (2006)

Directed by Todd Field · 2h 17m · Drama, Romance

## Identity

Little Children

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/little-children
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** little-children
- **IMDb ID:** tt0404203
- **TMDB ID:** 1440
- **Wikidata ID:** Q841203
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404203/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1440, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q841203

**Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 73 from 12 reviews

*In a sentence:* Everyone in this suburb behaves worse than their children, and a narrator is on hand to say so in case we missed it

> Todd Field’s second film is a sharp, uncomfortable study of a suburb in which nobody has grown up, and Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley are both exceptional in it. A narrator keeps explaining what we have already understood, and the final half hour strains.

## Synopsis

In a leafy American suburb, Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet), a lapsed English graduate with a small daughter, Lucy (Sadie Goldstein), sits apart from the other mothers at the playground and quietly despises them. The mothers have a nickname for the one father who turns up: the Prom King. He is Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), a stay-at-home husband who has failed the bar exam twice and whose wife Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) makes documentaries and pays the bills. Dared to get his phone number, Sarah hugs him instead, then kisses him, and the mothers scatter. A few streets away Ronnie McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley), a convicted sex offender, has moved back in with his mother May (Phyllis Somerville), and a former policeman, Larry Hedges (Noah Emmerich), is papering the neighbourhood with his face.

## Review

Todd Field’s second film, five years after [*In the Bedroom*](https://film.one/film/in-the-bedroom), takes Tom Perrotta’s novel and treats it as a comedy of manners into which something frightening has moved. Two bored parents drift towards an affair across one summer; a few streets away a convicted sex offender comes home to his mother, and a former policeman decides the neighbourhood needs protecting from him. It is sharp, uncomfortable and well acted. It is also narrated, and the narration is where our reservations start.

Winslet plays Sarah Pierce as a woman who has read too much to be happy on a park bench and not enough to know what to do about it. She gives her a slack-shouldered boredom that turns, when Brad Adamson appears, into something alert and slightly ashamed. Patrick Wilson’s Brad is a handsome man who has stopped expecting anything of himself; he is meant to be revising for a third attempt at the bar exam and instead stands outside the library watching teenagers skateboard. Their scenes together are written with wit and played without vanity. When they finally touch, both of them look relieved.

The other half of the film belongs to Jackie Earle Haley, remarkable as Ronnie McGorvey. He plays a man who knows what he is and cannot stop, with a thin voice and a stare that never settles, and Phyllis Somerville as his mother May loves him with a fierceness that makes everything worse. The scene most critics mention is the one at the public pool, where Ronnie arrives in mask and flippers, and we were horrified in a way we did not expect. Field holds the camera underwater while Ronnie glides past small kicking legs, Antonio Calvache lets the surface light ripple across his back, and when a parent on the side realises who he is the pool empties in seconds. We were frightened of him, and then ashamed of how fast we had joined the crowd on the concrete. Noah Emmerich, as Larry Hedges, the ex-cop who has made Ronnie his project, is the film’s second surprise: a loud, needy man whose rage is plainly about something else, and Emmerich never asks us to like him.

David Gropman’s suburb is clapboard and clipped hedges, and he sorts the households by clutter. Sarah’s kitchen is a mess of unopened post and her husband’s laptop, the Adamsons’ house has good furniture nobody sits on, and the McGorveys’ is dim and over-stuffed. Melissa Economy dresses the playground mothers in matching pastels and puts Sarah in a man’s shirt and a swimsuit that does not fit. Thomas Newman’s score ticks along on the marimba and chimes he used for [*American Beauty*](https://film.one/film/american-beauty), and we have heard this suburb before. Leo Trombetta cuts between the two stories so that a joke about snack time sits next to a flyer with a mugshot on it, and the one keeps souring the other.

Then there is the narrator. A grave male voice, in the manner of a public-television documentary, tells us what Sarah is thinking while we watch Winslet think it, and spells out the irony of a scene we have just understood. Sometimes it is funny; the deadpan account of a touch-football match has the ring of a wildlife programme. More often it is a hand on the shoulder from a film that does not need one. The screenplay also runs a book club discussion of *Madame Bovary* at which the women say aloud what the film is about, and Jennifer Connelly, as Brad’s wife Kathy, is given a camera, a mother and about four scenes. At 137 minutes it is a quarter of an hour long, and the final stretch pulls everyone towards a single evening with a tidiness the first hour would have mocked.

*In the Bedroom* trusted silence; this one does not quite. Most critics liked it and so, with reservations, did we. See it for Winslet and Haley, for the pool, and for a portrait of parenthood that is not sentimental for a second. Then decide whether the voice telling you what to think was part of the joke or the film’s nerves. We think it was the nerves.

*Fi1m score 77, published 1 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like Little Children, and the praise clusters around the acting. Kate Winslet is singled out more than anyone; Jackie Earle Haley’s Ronnie, described in several reviews as both pitiable and menacing, comes a close second, and Noah Emmerich gets a mention too. Todd Field’s direction is called precise, and the intercutting of the ensemble stories is credited with holding the film together. The reviews describe it as sharp, adult and unsettling, a mix of satire and bleak drama that works more often than not.

The reservations are about shape and length. More than one review finds the side stories slack and the film a little long. The Skinny says the story falters in the third act and that Jennifer Connelly is underused. The sharpest dissent comes from Slant Magazine, which calls the film pretentious and contrived and objects to how heavily it spells out its themes. The spread is wide, but the positives clearly outnumber the doubters.

## Straight answers

**Is Little Children worth watching?**

*Little Children* is worth watching for anyone who likes sharp, uncomfortable suburban drama, and we scored it 77. Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley are both exceptional, and the public pool scene horrified us more than we expected. A narrator keeps explaining what we have already understood, and at 137 minutes the final stretch strains.

**How long is Little Children, and what is it rated?**

*Little Children* runs 2h 17m. It is a drama and romance film.

**Where can I watch Little Children in Peru?**

*Little Children* is streaming on HBO Max in Peru. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Little Children, and is it suitable for children?**

*Little Children* is a 15 in the UK and R in the US, and it is adult in subject rather than violent. It follows an affair between two bored parents, and a convicted sex offender is one of its central characters, which makes it unsuitable for children and uncomfortable for many adults. The pool scene frightened us without showing any harm.

**How does Little Children compare to The Ice Storm?**

*Little Children* and [*The Ice Storm*](https://film.one/film/the-ice-storm) are both studies of suburbs in which the parents behave worse than their children, and *The Ice Storm* is the quieter and more trusting of the two. Ang Lee lets his performances carry the discomfort, while Todd Field adds a narrator who spells things out. Choose Field's film for Winslet and Haley, Lee's for Joan Allen and silence.

**Is Little Children based on a true story or a book?**

*Little Children* is based on Tom Perrotta's novel of the same name, not on a true story. Todd Field treats the book as a comedy of manners into which something frightening has moved, and the narration and a book club discussion of *Madame Bovary* keep its literary roots in view. You do not need to have read it.

**What should I watch after Little Children?**

After *Little Children*, try [*The Ice Storm*](https://film.one/film/the-ice-storm) (1997, Fi1m 85): Ang Lee’s 1970s suburb, where the parents swap keys and the children watch. Then [*Happiness*](https://film.one/film/happiness) (1998, Fi1m 78): Todd Solondz makes you sit with people you would cross the road to avoid; and [*In the Bedroom*](https://film.one/film/in-the-bedroom) (2001, Fi1m 84): Field’s first film, quieter and harder, about grief in a small Maine town.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Carina Chocano (90/100, inferred): Chocano finds the film deeply resonant, blending satire with an empathetic, humanistic vision. She especially praises the pool scene for its complexity and emotional subtlety. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-oct-06-et-little6-story.html)
- **The Guardian**, Rob Mackie (85/100, inferred): Mackie finds the film riveting and thoughtfully entertaining, praising its complex characters and skilfully intercut ensemble stories. He especially singles out Kate Winslet’s performance, while noting that not every scene works. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/apr/30/dvdreviews.katewinslet)
- **The New Yorker**, David Denby (85/100, inferred): Denby finds the film sharply intelligent and affecting, placing it among the best of the suburban-anguish genre. He especially praises Kate Winslet’s nuanced performance and Todd Field’s precise, fluid direction. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/10/16/small-worlds-2)
- **Total Film**, Total Film (4/5): The review praises the film as a sly, sexy adult drama with brains and balls, though some side-stories feel flabby. It singles out Kate Winslet’s fiery performance and Jackie Earle Haley’s disturbing turn as Ronnie. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/little-children-review/)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (B): Tobias finds the film reductive but ultimately persuasive, with its two storylines building to an unsettling result. He particularly praises Jackie Earle Haley’s performance for combining vulnerability with menace. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/little-children-1798202068)
- **Empire**, Helen O'Hara (75/100, inferred): O’Hara finds the film complex and thought-provoking, with an unsettling mix of black comedy and bleak drama. She particularly praises Noah Emmerich’s standout performance and the morally complicated portrayal of the characters. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/little-children-review/)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (70/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film deft, emotionally acute, and likely to connect with viewers, though he considers it somewhat overlong and occasionally fastidious. He praises Kate Winslet’s strong, intelligent performance and the film’s carefully crafted everyday atmosphere. [Read](https://variety.com/2006/film/awards/little-children-2-1200513748/)
- **The New York Times**, A. O. Scott (64/100, inferred): The page was inaccessible, so the critic’s verdict cannot be verified. The available text does not identify anything the critic praised or criticized. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/movies/29chil.html)
- **Time Out**, Ben Walters (64/100, inferred): The available page does not reveal the critic’s verdict. It also provides no review text from which to identify a specific point of praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/little-children-1)
- **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (1.5/4): Schager dismisses the film as pretentious and contrived. He particularly objects to its heavy-handed exposition and insistence on spelling out its themes. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/little-children/)
- **Eye for Film**, Steve Harwood (85/100, inferred): Harwood finds the film powerful and fascinating, praising its layered portrayal of suburban life. He especially singles out Jackie Earle Haley’s startling performance as both sympathetic and menacing. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/little-children-film-review-by-steve-harwood)
- **The Skinny**, Megan Garriock (★★★): The review finds the film compelling at first but says its story falters in the third act. It praises the performances and on-screen chemistry of Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson, while criticizing Jennifer Connelly’s underused role and the implausible plot twists. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/little-children)

## Details

- **Director:** Todd Field
- **Director:** Todd Field
- **Screenplay:** Tom Perrotta, Todd Field
- **Novel:** Tom Perrotta
- **Cinematography:** Antonio Calvache
- **Editor:** Leo Trombetta
- **Music:** Thomas Newman
- **Production design:** David Gropman
- **Costume design:** Melissa Economy
- **Producer:** Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Todd Field
- **Cast:** Kate Winslet as Sarah Pierce; Patrick Wilson as Brad Adamson; Jennifer Connelly as Kathy Adamson; Gregg Edelman as Richard Pierce; Sadie Goldstein as Lucy Pierce; Ty Simpkins as Aaron Adamson; Noah Emmerich as Larry Hedges; Jackie Earle Haley as Ronnie J. McGorvey
- **Runtime:** 2h 17m
- **First release (the US):** 1 September 2006
- **Genres:** Drama, Romance
- **Also in:** [Golden Globe Best Drama winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-drama.md) (Nominee, 2006)
- **Budget:** $26 million
- **Box office:** $15 million

## Where to watch in Peru

- HBO Max: streaming

*Checked 2026-10-01.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BR, CA, CL, CO, DE, EC, GB, IE, MX, NZ, PA, PE, RO, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2007: Best Actress (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *The Ice Storm* (1997), Fi1m 85: Ang Lee’s 1970s suburb, where the parents swap keys and the children watch. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-ice-storm.md)
- *Happiness* (1998), Fi1m 78: Todd Solondz makes you sit with people you would cross the road to avoid. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/happiness.md)
- *The Swimmer* (1968): Burt Lancaster crosses suburbia pool by pool and the welcome cools with each one.
- *In the Bedroom* (2001), Fi1m 84: Field’s first film, quieter and harder, about grief in a small Maine town. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/in-the-bedroom.md)
- *The Hunt* (2012), Fi1m 82: Mads Mikkelsen as the man a Danish village decides to be afraid of. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-hunt.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/little-children