Release Date:  October 20, 2006 (wide)
Rating:  R (for strong sexuality and nudity, language and some disturbing content.)
Genre:  Drama
Run Time:  130 min.
Director:  Todd Field
Actors:  Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Gregg Edelman, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich

We all make mistakes, and everyone has flaws. These are truisms that even a little child knows.

Todd Field’s “Little Children” fleshes out these lessons in a film of remarkable performances, solid storytelling, cinematic skill – and a whole lot of flesh. Too much flesh, in fact. For in telling the story of two unhappily married individuals who enter into an affair, Field gives us explicit scenes of sexuality that illustrate too vividly the destructive desires of his protagonists.

“Little Children” is also a film with no heroes – if you’re looking for role models, look elsewhere. Where the film excels – and does so in spades – is in showing the power of private sins to damage our lives, and how public sins can destroy reputations and turn an individual into a community pariah.

Kate Winslet stars as Sarah, one of a cadre of married moms who meet regularly at the neighborhood playground. While their children play, the women obsess on the playground’s other visitor:  a lone stay-at-home dad, whom they fantasize about from afar. On a bet, Sarah approaches Brad (Patrick Wilson) to acquire his phone number, but ends up kissing him instead. The kiss sparks a longing within both Brad and Sarah (given voice by a droll narrator who recites plum portions of the Tom Perrotta novel on which the film is based), and the two embark on an affair.

Brad uses football practice and supposed studying for his third attempt at passing the bar exam as cover for the romantic interludes, while Sarah attends a neighborhood book club to acquire the social interaction lacking in her marriage. Her husband, Richard (Gregg Edelman), is too consumed with online pornography to pick up on his wife’s wandering eye, but Brad’s wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), is not so dense. She invites Sarah and Richard over for a dinner party, waits to have her suspicions about Sarah confirmed, and then puts Brad on a short leash.

Adding to the personal unrest at the heart of “Little Children” is Ronald James McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley), a convicted sex offender who has recently moved to the neighborhood to live with his mother. Though softened from the book, Ronnie is a loathsome character who fights a losing battle against his sexual disorder. His presence in the neighborhood gives Sarah and Brad a focus for their discontent, and, in the case of disgraced cop Larry (Noah Emmerich), an outlet for bottled-up rage.