Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Little Children / USA / 2006

I’m not as knee-jerkedly unimpressed with this film as others here. It has moments of suspense and moments of empathy, but it’s the compendium of such moments that is flawed. Consider the narration: quarterbacking a rather crucial game in his evening touch football league, Brad channels his team to victory, and the narration scores the game like it’s an episode of ESPN Classic. It’s made hilariously epic, the film’s most brilliant scene. But the same narration completely folds other scenes, often reiterating — not elucidating — what is happening on screen.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: DVD screener
22 Dec 2006 4:43 PM | Comments (4)

Comments / 4 total / Submit Comment

1. Jenny / 22 December 2006 / 3:22 PM / URL

   Really, knee-jerk? Certainly with my gut yes, but I had a difficult time with my thoughts on this one, even if that’s not obvious. Although I’ve already made my feelings known, I doubt a second viewing would elicit empathy from me for any character, except Ronald’s mother.

   Regarding the football narration, I’ll take your word on it, mainly because I’ve watched perhaps 10 minutes of ESPN in my entire lifetime. However, the men behind me at the screening would have agreed with you, as that was the single sequence that captivated their attention, and rather energetically.

2. Rumsey / 22 December 2006 / 4:16 PM / URL

   My apology — knee-jerk isn’t the most appropriate way to put it, but generally this film has elicited immediate disdain, when I can’t say I didn’t like it entirely because I did enjoy portions of it. I guess, if you take the ironic pretense of the narration during the football scene and consider the remaining scenes with the same ironic pretense the whole film may be a lot less scatter-shot and condescending than it seems upon an initial viewing. But I’m not sure I have any interest in seeing this again.

3. Matt / 22 December 2006 / 10:31 PM / URL

   I actually wanted this movie to be a lot more condescending to its characters than it was. It was doing fine in the beginning (the voice-over narration should have been relentless, but it dropped out after a while, only to return in the football scene with an entirely different tone), but then when it seemed to want me to feel for them at the end, I had to scoff.

4. leo / 23 December 2006 / 9:20 AM / URL

   My reaction is close to Rumsey’s: virtually everyone I know hated it, and so I was mildly pleasantly surprised that it had one or two redeeming qualities. I enjoyed, rather than resented, its condescending attitude to its characters, though as Matt says, this could have been maintained with a little more clarity of purpose.

   But I’m not entirely sure the ending intends for us to empathize with the characters. If anything, the “epiphanies” are so glibly rendered, the voiceover so smug, and the characters so self-satisfied by their various achievements of inner peace that I can’t help but think that these are the sort of shallow revelations these characters have been asking for all along.

   That said, the film hedges its bets so much in this regard that I can’t decipher any particular point (satirical or otherwise) and have no idea what this film is trying to tell me (per Mr. Field) about Iraq.

   And of course, if this thing sweeps the Oscars, I too will hop on the fuck-Little Children bandwagon.