When it comes to the movies, I really don't have a mind of my own. Once the Oscar nominations are announced, I head like a lemming to the theater or the video store to see all the honored flicks.It's taken me a while, but I finally got to Little Children, nominated for 3 Oscars last year (best actress, best supporting actor and adapted screenplay).
I cannot think of enough adjectives for Kate Winslet's performance as a suburban housewife who could not hate her life more. At the beginning of the movie, in her scenes at the playground, you can almost feel her suffocating outdoors. When she falls in love, or perhaps chooses to fall in love, she seems to protect the first real feelings she's experienced in ages the way a mother hen protects her precious nest. And I was especially moved by the way she set her book club back on their heels with her explanation of Madame Bovary. It's as though she's playing a 21st century Rose, suffering through the very fate Jack supposedly saved her from the night a certain famous boat went down.
Jennifer Connelly is a beautiful, decent, talented working wife and mother who doesn't know how to protect her family. Watch her eyes. She understands everything that's going on around her, even if she doesn't articulate it.
Jackie Earle Haley plays a convicted sex offender whose presence not only frightens the parents, it gives them something to do. He's an often sympathetic but not remotely nice man, probably the way real sex offenders who have served their time are as they try to re-enter society. He's played by the runt kid from the 1980s cycling movie Breaking Away. His return to films is powerful and sad.
As is this entire movie. Is it good? Yes, it's exceptional. But it's as dark as the DVD case. I enjoyed Live Free or Die Hard much more. Sometimes I don't want to ... think.
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