LITTLE CHILDREN

Year: 2006
USA: New Line Cinema
UK: Entertainment Film Distributors
Cast: Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich, Gregg Edelman, Phyllis Somerville, Raymond J Barry, Jane Adams, Ty Simpkins, Sadie Goldstein
Director: Todd Field
Country: USA
USA: 130 mins
UK: 137 mins
USA Rated: R for strong sexuality and nudity, language and some disturbing content
UK Certificate: 15 contains some strong sex and language
USA Release Date: 13 October 2006 (Limited Release - wider)
USA Release Date: 6 October 2006 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 3 November 2006

Synopsis

Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta and co-writer with director Todd Field, LITTLE CHILDREN stars Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson. The film centers on a handful of individuals whose lives intersect on the playgrounds, town pools and streets of their small community in surprising and potentially dangerous ways.

While LITTLE CHILDREN is based on an acclaimed novel, Todd Field and Tom Perrotta wanted to create a film that stood on its own, independent of the book.

"In 2003 I read the galleys for Tom Perrotta's new novel 'Little Children'. I was excited by its similarity to [Richard Yates' novel] Revolutionary Road. However, where as Yates's story leaves you emotionally gutted, the writer being an angry and unforgiving God, 'Little Children' was a satirical melodrama, and Perrotta was not so quick to judge his characters. He painted them with empathy and humor; the mainframe of the book being the idea of Mother, with the thread of matriarchy running through every relationship in the story. The struggle for identity is what these characters battle from the start; it leads to a hunger they are unable to satiate - violence and fear hold sway. The shame of how they see themselves when the fingers start pointing. It was with this idea in mind, that Tom and I began our work together." - Todd Field

"When Todd and I began collaborating on the script, we were hoping to make something new out of the material, rather than simply reproducing the book onto film. There's really no way for two writers with such distinct voices and sensibilities to come together and not create something very different from what either one of us would have done on his own." - Tom Perrotta.