Full Review

"Little Children" (New Line) is a sharply observed suburban story about Sarah, an unhappy wife (Kate Winslet, in peak form), married to distant husband Richard (Gregg Edelman), who is more interested in a newly discovered online sex site than in his frustrated wife.

There's also Brad (Patrick Wilson), a stay-at-home dad whose breadwinner wife Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), a PBS documentary maker, nags him to pass his bar exam and focuses all of her affection on their young son.

Both Brad and grad-school-dropout Sarah are frustrated by dreams unfulfilled, and like most of the characters here, are the real "children" of the ironic title. Brad, for instance, would rather spend hours on end watching the local skateboarding teenagers who remind him of his youthful promise instead of studying. His procrastination ultimately finds an outlet when he's recruited by his seriously unhinged old buddy, Larry (Noah Emmerich), an ex-cop, to join a football team made up of local policemen.

At the playground, the mothers are agog as they await good-looking Brad's daily appearance pushing his young son's stroller. One day, they dare Sarah to ask for his phone number. Instead, she confides in Brad about the dare, and jokingly suggests they kiss to shock the others.

He agrees and, of course, there's an immediate and palpable attraction. Sarah and Brad gradually fall in love and, in time, commence an adulterous affair. (A discussion of "Madame Bovary" at a women's book club will later bring the adultery theme into sharper focus.)

All this unfolds against the backdrop of a community aflutter because middle-aged Ronnie (Jackie Earle Haley), a convicted sex offender, has moved into his mother May's (Phyllis Somerville) house there. The obsessive Larry is on a one-man vigilante mission to harass the pathetic ex-con, leading the latter's forgiving mother to staunchly defend her helpless son, underscoring a strong matriarchal thread running through the film's narrative.

One of the film's most brilliant sequences involves Ronnie's unapologetic appearance at the local pool with snorkel gear and fins which causes a mass exodus from the pool rivaling any scene in "Jaws"!

Director and co-writer Todd Field's black comedy, based on Tom Perrotta's novel (he co-wrote the screenplay) with its pitch-perfect performances (including Jane Adams as a lonely young woman who answers a personal ad placed by May on her son's behalf), is one of those films that illuminates the human condition (and shows an all-encompassing compassion), even as it presents characters whose behavior is deeply flawed, while capped by a deeply moral and redemptive ending.

Some of the sexual imagery in the film -- though not exploitative -- goes arguably further than needed. But the ultimately heart-wrenching humanity on display is what you remember.

The film contains some rough and crude language and expressions; profanity; several brief sexual encounters, one particularly graphic with rear male nudity; upper and rear female nudity elsewhere; adultery; some implied aberrant sexual activity; and bloody self-mutilation. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

These movies have been evaluated for artistic merit and moral suitability by the media reviewing division of Catholic News Service. The reviews include the CNS rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

A-I -- general patronage;
A-II -- adults and adolescents;
A-III -- adults;
L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
O -- morally offensive.

Note: Some movies previously were designated A-IV. Older films with this classification should be regarded as classified L.