Pardon my french.I just finished watching
Little Children. A 2006 movie nominated for quite a few prestigious film awards. It's M18 due to a couple of sexual references but otherwise, it's easy on the soul. In fact, it's good for the soul.
It's a good movie, based on my I felt and the message conveyed.
The part where the paedophile was ostracised and shunned like the plague had a strong impact on me.
This character named Ronnie, was an ex-convict. He was incarcerated because he exposed himself to a minor. And after he was released, this ex-cop, Larry, continuously taunted him and made the entire neighbourhood join in his campaign to shame and humiliate Ronnie. One day, Ronnie went to the town pool to have a swim. The town pool is like Planet Kids. There are a million children in the pool and a million parents outside the pool getting a tan or simply watching their kids play in the sun. When Ronnie was found to be in the water, every adult started getting hysterical and insisting their children get out of the pool 'RIGHT NOW!'. And when eventually the waters were only populated with Ronnie himself, the parents and kids both were filmed to watch him with scornful eyes.
My heart went out to Ronnie. All he wanted to do was to 'cool off'. He knew he did something bad last time, he knew he was wrong. He was guilty and he thought he had paid his dues in prison.
So where's the forgiveness?
I was wondering why people were so quick to judge and so slow to forgive, and why must society choose to ostracise and intimidate a person who only wanted to be redeemed. Ronnie had a psycho-sexual disorder, it wasn't his fault. His fault lay in the fact that he didn't or couldn't exercise enough self-restraint. So why did he have to suffer in public again after serving his time in the penitentiary?
The only part I failed to comprehend was the neighbourhood's heartlessness and lack of forgiveness.
That was not the only instance of Ronnie's torture. The path leading to his house was always vandalised with hurtful words like 'devil'. And Larry often used a loudspeaker to shout insults, at night, and urge all parents to keep their kids away from Ronnie. Larry just took pride in taunting Ronnie.
One night, Ronnie's mother who lived with him got very angry at the din Larry was making outside their house. She went down to give him a piece of her mind but was shoved by Larry and ended up with a heart attack. She died soon after due to this incident.
Ronnie couldn't take her death in his stride because she was the only one who was there for him in his entire life. But now that she was gone, he couldn't take it. On her deathbed, minutes before she died, she wrote a note to Ronnie. Her last words were 'please be a good boy'. And then she passed on.
Ronnie read the note later, cried, and went to the town's playground to sit on the swing. It was not filmed in detail(thank goodness) but he had already castrated himself and believed that that was the only way he could 'be a good boy' to fulfil his mother's wish. Larry came to apologise and express his heartfelt condolences and this was when Ronnie dropped his jeans and told Larry 'I'll be good now'.
This part, was heartwrenching.
Why must an ex-offender be subjected to public humiliation, even after paying his dues,
and even have to suffer three-fold
again in order to be forgiven.
He castrated himself. It was not a simply slit on the wrist like all Simple Plan fans. It was not a lame attempt to jump off a 5-storey building. It was
castration. Ronnie didn't even felt the need to be accepted. He only craved forgiveness. And redemption.
Why?
Why so begrudging?
Is it human nature to be so cruel?
Did God make us unforgiving and uncompassionate?
You may think, no Rachel, it's only a movie.
But from whom and where did Todd Field(director) get this movie idea from? How did he develop it? Why was this film a hit and why did it touch so many hearts such that it was multi-nominated?
Surely it must have stemmed from somewhere. Random thoughts are not so elaborate. Surely there was
some basis.
It hurts to know that humans' have a dark side. It hurts to know that this dark side is so dark.
In short,
Little Children is a profound movie about infidelity, centering on a group of young marrieds, whose lives intersect on the playgrounds, town pools and streets of their small community, in potentially dangerous ways.
(Nominated for 3 Oscars. And other 24 nominations with 12 wins.)
