A `LITTLE' MOVIE GOES A LONG WAY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

`Little Children'' is something of a head-scratcher. A time-released head-scratcher. And that's a good thing. Though it may not seem so right away.

The movie -- adapted by director Todd Field (``In the Bedroom'') and Tom Perrotta (``Election'') from his novel -- plays like a suburban infidelity satire for the longest time. Its tone registers somewhere between the cartoonishness of ``American Beauty'' and ``The Graduate's'' more natural ennui -- and parts of the new film directly reference moments from both of the earlier ones.

But ``Little Children'' also has a quality all its own, equivalent to a sense of floating through life. But after things take some rather nightmarish turns, deep emotional charges go off, and the film concludes on a note that will likely make you wonder whether you've just seen a snide critique of middle-class values or an unforgiving argument in their favor.

I'm pretty sure it's the former -- only after more thought and longer conversations than most movies inspire, though. I also concluded that the film is a lot richer than it appeared while I was watching.

And what I watched was provocative, beautifully acted, funny and, at times, heart-stoppingly shocking -- which is a pretty good start.

Arrested development

So how come it didn't feel like all that much? Maybe it's hard to get past the notion that, true to its title, ``Little Children'' is about a bunch of big babies.

As an ironic narrator explains early on, Kate Winslet's protagonist, Sarah Pierce, may have an adorable young daughter, Lucy, and a nice, comfortable house, but she feels like a stranger to everything.

Sarah's a nice person, though; she gets the full Winslet empathy wash, from her deepest depressions to most flashing ecstasies. And so is Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), who takes his own little boy to the park and community pool, where Sarah starts spending her summer afternoons with them.

Brad's evenings are devoted to reliving college glories with a police football team -- when he should be studying for the bar exam, which he's already flunked twice. He and his documentary-maker wife Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) pretty much live off of handouts from her wealthy mother.

Brad's nice, though, in a slightly vacant, casually attractive sort of way. And he and Sarah inevitably have a nice affair. You'd like them both more if they'd get jobs or do something more useful, but their lovemaking looks very rewarding, and their spiritual connection rings true and, to these two, seems kind of sensible.

Enter the scapegoat

But even though they are the main story, the one most people will be talking about is the one of sex offender. Played with unalloyed creepiness yet effective poignancy by Jackie Earle Haley (last seen by most as a kid in the original ``Bad News Bears'' and ``Breaking Away''), just-paroled Ronnie McGorvey lives with his fiercely protective mom, May (a great Phyllis Somerville). Ronnie becomes the focus of all the frustrated neighbors' fears and bullying impulses, even though it's known that he never went further than exposing himself to children. Through him, the movie -- sometimes boldly -- dares to ask, how much do we get off on our own sense of justifiable repulsion?

It's not news that we're all imperfectly human and that we judge others too much for having the same condition. Still, this much compassion is rare in American films. And ``Little Children'' brings it to unexpectedly dark and disturbing places, often with a smile and sometimes with a contradictory sense of superiority.

Just like real people, of all ages, do.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

LITTLE CHILDREN - Three and one half stars

(R: sex, nudity, violence, language, children in jeopardy)

Starring: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich, Phyllis Somerville.

Director: Todd Field.

Running time: 2 hr. 10 min.

Playing: ArcLight, Hollywood; Century 15, Century City; Laemmle Monica, Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: Oddly toned comedy/drama about suburban adultery and child-molester panic feels unsatisfying while you watch -- but I'll bet you'll talk about it more than any other film this year.