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It is hard to write good satire, even more so when the target is someone not powerful nor loathsome. Todd Field's ambition with Little Children is both small and large. He wants to gently skewer suburban living yet also accurately and empathetically portray the malaise these people experience. It could have been overwrought or phony, but Field is a subtler director than Sam Mendes. Little Children is quite funny at times, but Field steers clear of outright mockery, especially when it comes to the central relationship between Kate Winslett and Patrick Wilson (who is so freaking good in this movie I wish he'd had more of a career beyond horror). These are aimless people who do bad things for varyingly justified reasons, but there's a sincerity here in how Field shows their longing. The use of a narrator could have easily created too much ironic distance between the audience and the characters, and the climax feels a bit too neat to fit the messy emotions that preceded it, but somehow Field pulls it all off.
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