Wick's Review

Male Stars - Great 4.0

Great grin, strapping smooth body, throws a decent spiral: Patrick Wilson easily fills the role of ex-college quarterback failing the transition into adulthood. Not nearly as smart as his wife or his lover, but everybody's favorite guy to have around, a lucky man who is both Guy's Guy and catnip to the ladies.

Female Stars - Perfect 5.0

Kate Winslet in another classically executed Kate Winslet role: smart, panicked by life, not superhot but gets carnal with a superhot guy - Patrick Wilson here, Leo D. in "Titanic":http://www.viewguide.com/movie_reviews/47-titanic. This very British actress proves her range yet again by delivering a perfectly executed flat American brogue, making her sound completely the Yank. In this very American role she even cheers the handsome quarterback after he scores on a breakaway, following which he scores with her on the field under the lights. Sis, boom, bah. Jennifer Connelly, also a masterful actress along with being the thinking man's hottie, cheers on her man in a different, more hectoring way.

Female Costars - Perfect 5.0

Phyllis Somerville, she of the extensive Law & Order family resume, delivers a poignant mother-of-the-predatory-freak performance.

Male Costars - Perfect 5.0

Jackie Earle Haley perfectly inhabits the sick fuck momma's boy who obsesses on other children even though he's long since grown into a man's body. While the finely tuned moral relativism of *Little Children* makes him ultimately pitiable, to its credit it never flinches from his self-indulgent odiousness.

Direction - Really Great 4.5

The young auteur Todd Field delivers in *Little Children* his second closely observed masterpiece, the first being 2001's "In the Bedroom":http://www.viewguide.com/movies/368574. A legitimate triple threat - brilliant writer, disciplined director, successful actor - Field qualifies as an Orson Welles for our own diminished Hollywood era.

Dialogue - Really Great 4.5

Understated dialogue builds to several peaks and even delivers a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. The whole story unfolds within the mundane confines of a suburban village, so any excitement is downright interesting. Sweaty assignations amongst the otherwise married surely qualifies, and is presented in a way that is both surprising to the lovers and plausible to the viewer. Perhaps the most impressive quality of the script is that each character is well and truly introduced before they make an appearance on film, so that when you finely do see the hectoring wife or the self-satisfying husband or the menacing sex offender, you have to reconcile their visual appearance with the already painted mental picture. Smart and engaging, that.

Music - Good 3.0

Visuals - Great 4.0

Closely observed and tightly cropped: nothing fancy, just the basics well done, as evidenced by the crisply constructed trailer.

Sex Erotic 3.0

Violence Fierce 2.2

Rudeness Profane 3.0

Circumstantial - Glib 2.0

Biological - Glib 2.0

Physical - Natural 1.0