Has anyone seen this? I rented it because I remembered it was connected to an Academy Award nomination (Kate Winslet).
It seemed like a fairly typical filmic glorification of sexual passion/romantic love and the quest for self-actualization, but then it turned abruptly at the end. I was somewhat puzzled. What happened? Was it as simple as the realization that it was selfish to put their own desires ahead of their children's well-being?
I'd really be interested in what others thought.
Certainly an extremely creepy yet at the same time compassionate depiction of a sexual deviant (I guess the proper way to say that would be 'person with a psycho-sexual disorder'.) But a far cry from 'The Woodsman', which I thought was a truly extraordinary film, if anyone wants to discuss that as well, or instead.
Little Children
Little Children
Avatar photo by Richard Lykes, used with permission.
Oh, no, vison, I've had it since winter. I haven't had a chance to look for something more seasonally appropriate. It seems a bit melancholy at this time of year.
I'm back to finishing Great Expectations, if you care to keep me company in the Library.
I'm afraid there's nothing to do but keep reiterating superlatives. The description of the Wemmick domicile and relationship, for example. *shakes head in awe*
I'm back to finishing Great Expectations, if you care to keep me company in the Library.
I'm afraid there's nothing to do but keep reiterating superlatives. The description of the Wemmick domicile and relationship, for example. *shakes head in awe*Avatar photo by Richard Lykes, used with permission.
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baby tuckoo
- Deluded Simpleton
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Should the second post of a thread be "off topic."
I don't think so.
Those Mets, how about those Mets.
I've slowly been reading Worlds . . . . you?
Sorry, Cerrie, I've done a disservise to you post. I hurl myself upon . . . something symbolic. If it weren't so late I'd edit this. Again, sorry. It's vison's fault.
I don't think so.
Those Mets, how about those Mets.
I've slowly been reading Worlds . . . . you?
Sorry, Cerrie, I've done a disservise to you post. I hurl myself upon . . . something symbolic. If it weren't so late I'd edit this. Again, sorry. It's vison's fault.
babyt, I have to confess that I'm not inclined to take the time to cut and paste in order to enlarge asides, and the resolution is generally not good enough for me to read them as is. I wonder if other people have this problem? I thought I'd mention it in case it would please you just as well to go one size up with the print. This is 9 pt.
Avatar photo by Richard Lykes, used with permission.
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Voronwë the Faithful
- At the intersection of here and now
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Thanks for mentioning that, Cerin. I have had the same problem recently as well.
I saw Little Children a couple of weeks ago. I'm still not really sure what to make of it, particularly the abrupt shifts at the end. I thought the guy (I forget his name) stopping off to try the skateboard trick on the way to meet Kate Winslet was really silly. Of course, I can't imagine why someone would rather skateboard than go run off with Kate Winslet, but that's just me.
I saw Little Children a couple of weeks ago. I'm still not really sure what to make of it, particularly the abrupt shifts at the end. I thought the guy (I forget his name) stopping off to try the skateboard trick on the way to meet Kate Winslet was really silly. Of course, I can't imagine why someone would rather skateboard than go run off with Kate Winslet, but that's just me.
Last edited by Voronwë the Faithful on Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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truehobbit
- Cute, cuddly and dangerous to know
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So, what's this film about?
(Cerin, I must admit to still feeling a bit let-down that no one cared to discuss Great Expectations with me when I took the trouble to compose a longish post about my impressions after I'd finished it, so I'm still not feeling much in the mood to get back to the discussion. I've seen you finally finished the book, too, will see if I have a look at what you're posting. )
Oh, and, yes, size 9 is the smallest I can easily read, smaller often requires hitting 'quote', and I only take that trouble if I'm really, really curious.
(Cerin, I must admit to still feeling a bit let-down that no one cared to discuss Great Expectations with me when I took the trouble to compose a longish post about my impressions after I'd finished it, so I'm still not feeling much in the mood to get back to the discussion. I've seen you finally finished the book, too, will see if I have a look at what you're posting.
)Oh, and, yes, size 9 is the smallest I can easily read, smaller often requires hitting 'quote', and I only take that trouble if I'm really, really curious.
but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
hobby, I don't think it was that no one cared to discuss GE with you, but that no one else kept up with it! You were always so far ahead of me that I couldn't discuss with you. I have not finished, I am about half-way through, but I now have more time and am reading steadily. Please do stop by if you feel in the mood, but I realize you are starting a new read so can certainly understand if you don't have the time or are not in the right frame of mind.
eta: never thought of hitting quote to read the asides.
EXTENSIVE, IF NOT EXHAUSTIVE, SPOILERS BELOW
This movie was about a park where some very conventional suburban mothers, portrayed as catty and narrow-minded and pitifully preoccupied with plebian concerns like snacks, would gather to supervise their children playing together. The impressive voice from 'Frontline' is engaged in extended narration throughout.
Kate Winslet was a less conventional mother, and I don't quite remember the details, but she was not there just to be there with her daughter, but to observe in some capacity, perhaps for a book she was writing? She is a less than devoted mother, which she freely admits through the narrator. (I enjoyed the presence of the narrator; I've never understood what people have against narration in movies; I think narration could have been wonderfully useful to the LoTR films.)
The conventional mothers were mildly obsessed with a very attractive single father who frequented the park with his similarly-aged son. They whispered about him, but did not interact with him.
The Winslet character did go over and talk with him, and they had an odd introductory moment because she wanted to get a rise out of the other mothers, so she suggested they hug for that reason, and then that they kiss for that reason, which they did, which scandalized the other mothers so that they would not associate with her anymore.
Meanwhile we learn that the husband's wife, though gorgeous (Jennifer Connelly), is preoccupied with her job as documentarian and tends to be non-supportive and disinterested in him as a person, and that Winslet's stuffed-shirt husband relieves himself sexually by using internet porn and ladies' undergarments, which activity she catches him at.
Her subsequent disgust leads her to start going to a pool that the man mentioned he took his son to each day. They attend the pool each day, sit in the shade while their children play, get to know each other but resist beginning a physical relationship until one day when they're caught in a thunderstorm and end up wet at her house. After that, they conduct their sexual affair while the children have their afternoon nap at her house.
A main sub-plot in the film involves a man convicted of exposing himself to a child, and a former disgraced and retired policeman with severe emotional problems who has taken it upon himself to harrass the sex offender and blanket the area with posters warning the neighborhood about him. The sex offender is portrayed as a creepy outcast who lives in a dysfunctional relationship with his elderly mother.
So the movie seemed to be moving along in validation of the principles' decision to run away together, but at the end, on their way to their assignation at the park (she with her daughter, he alone), they each abruptly and separately decide not to follow through with their plan. The psychologically disturbed former cop and the psychologically disturbed sex offender do end up together at the park, and the former tries to save the latter after the latter has mutilated himself in an attempt to honor the dying request of his mother (dead from heart failure as a result of the former law officer's relentless harrassment), that he 'please be a good boy.'
The turn of events took only moments at the very end of the film, and it remained, I thought, somewhat ambiguous as to what exactly had happened in the minds of the principles to so quickly and completely reverse their thinking.
Voronwë, the fact that the man did not leave the note for his wife seems to indicate that he had already decided he would not be going away with Kate, so stopping with the skateboards makes sense, as a way to avoid the difficulty of telling her so. But I still don't have anything concrete to account for the simultaneous epiphany they both seem to have experienced.
eta: never thought of hitting quote to read the asides.
EXTENSIVE, IF NOT EXHAUSTIVE, SPOILERS BELOW
This movie was about a park where some very conventional suburban mothers, portrayed as catty and narrow-minded and pitifully preoccupied with plebian concerns like snacks, would gather to supervise their children playing together. The impressive voice from 'Frontline' is engaged in extended narration throughout.
Kate Winslet was a less conventional mother, and I don't quite remember the details, but she was not there just to be there with her daughter, but to observe in some capacity, perhaps for a book she was writing? She is a less than devoted mother, which she freely admits through the narrator. (I enjoyed the presence of the narrator; I've never understood what people have against narration in movies; I think narration could have been wonderfully useful to the LoTR films.)
The conventional mothers were mildly obsessed with a very attractive single father who frequented the park with his similarly-aged son. They whispered about him, but did not interact with him.
The Winslet character did go over and talk with him, and they had an odd introductory moment because she wanted to get a rise out of the other mothers, so she suggested they hug for that reason, and then that they kiss for that reason, which they did, which scandalized the other mothers so that they would not associate with her anymore.
Meanwhile we learn that the husband's wife, though gorgeous (Jennifer Connelly), is preoccupied with her job as documentarian and tends to be non-supportive and disinterested in him as a person, and that Winslet's stuffed-shirt husband relieves himself sexually by using internet porn and ladies' undergarments, which activity she catches him at.
Her subsequent disgust leads her to start going to a pool that the man mentioned he took his son to each day. They attend the pool each day, sit in the shade while their children play, get to know each other but resist beginning a physical relationship until one day when they're caught in a thunderstorm and end up wet at her house. After that, they conduct their sexual affair while the children have their afternoon nap at her house.
A main sub-plot in the film involves a man convicted of exposing himself to a child, and a former disgraced and retired policeman with severe emotional problems who has taken it upon himself to harrass the sex offender and blanket the area with posters warning the neighborhood about him. The sex offender is portrayed as a creepy outcast who lives in a dysfunctional relationship with his elderly mother.
So the movie seemed to be moving along in validation of the principles' decision to run away together, but at the end, on their way to their assignation at the park (she with her daughter, he alone), they each abruptly and separately decide not to follow through with their plan. The psychologically disturbed former cop and the psychologically disturbed sex offender do end up together at the park, and the former tries to save the latter after the latter has mutilated himself in an attempt to honor the dying request of his mother (dead from heart failure as a result of the former law officer's relentless harrassment), that he 'please be a good boy.'
The turn of events took only moments at the very end of the film, and it remained, I thought, somewhat ambiguous as to what exactly had happened in the minds of the principles to so quickly and completely reverse their thinking.
Voronwë, the fact that the man did not leave the note for his wife seems to indicate that he had already decided he would not be going away with Kate, so stopping with the skateboards makes sense, as a way to avoid the difficulty of telling her so. But I still don't have anything concrete to account for the simultaneous epiphany they both seem to have experienced.
Avatar photo by Richard Lykes, used with permission.