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Little Children

Little Children

Drama · Romance · 2006

The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations.

Movie details

Little Children

2006 Drama · Romance 2h 17m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.5 / 10

121.1K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

81 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

75 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Little Children?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Ice Storm

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Unfaithful

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Todd Field

Written by

Tom Perrotta · Todd Field

Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet

Sarah Pierce

Patrick Wilson

Patrick Wilson

Brad Adamson

Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly

Kathy Adamson

Gregg Edelman

Gregg Edelman

Richard Pierce

Sadie Goldstein

Sadie Goldstein

Lucy Pierce

Ty Simpkins

Ty Simpkins

Aaron Adamson

Noah Emmerich

Noah Emmerich

Larry Hedges

Court is in session

Put Little Children on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.