'' is a
2006 Academy Award and
Golden Globe Award -nominated
Film written and directed by
Todd Field , based on the
Novel Of The Same Name by
Tom Perrotta . It stars
Kate Winslet ,
Patrick Wilson ,
Jennifer Connelly ,
Noah Emmerich and
Jackie Earle Haley .
Sarah Pierce (
Kate Winslet ) is a former campus
Feminist and academic who is now a reluctant homemaker and mother in an upper-middle class suburb of
Boston . Feeling stifled and aimless in her role as a mother, Sarah views her young daughter as a nuisance, and feels out of place around the tedious and judgmental
Stepford -like mothers she encounters on a daily basis at the local playground. Her marriage has become loveless, and she even catches her husband masturbating to online pornography with a pair of panties over his face.
Brad Adamson (
Patrick Wilson ) is a former college football player who's married to Kathy (
Jennifer Connelly ), a
Documentary Film Maker . Emasculated by his wife's successful career, and somewhat embarrassed at his role as a stay-at-home dad (he's failed the Bar Exam twice), Brad is unhappy. Each day he leaves the house with the pretense of going to the library to study for the exam, but in actuality he sits and watches skateboarders at the park. He joins a
Touch Football team at the urge of a friend, Larry (
Noah Emmerich ).
Sarah and Brad meet on the playground, and Sarah suggests they kiss one another to shock the mothers nearby. Not only do they shock the mothers, but also themselves, as both realize their sudden attraction for each other. They begin to see each other at the pool and start up a friendship, while their children also bond with one another. The sexual attraction between them grows. After a rainstorm, Brad and Sarah have a moment alone at Sarah's home, and their passion finally emerges when they kiss and make love.
Meanwhile, Ronald (Ronnie) James McGorvey (
Jackie Earle Haley ), who has served a prison sentence for
Indecent Exposure to a minor, has moved back into the neighborhood to live with his mother. Larry, a former police officer, launches a hate campaign against McGorvey, handing out posters,
Vandalizing his house, harassing, and almost
Assaulting the man and his mother. It is revealed that Larry is responsible for the accidental shooting of a 13-year-old boy during his time as a policeman. Larry takes out this aggression and anger on Ronnie. Ronnie goes to the neighborhood pool, and the police are called after he is spotted. Ronnie's mother (
Phyllis Somerville ) sets him up on a date, though he tells her that he doesn't desire women his own age, although he wished he did. The date ends with him
Masturbating in her car (beside a playground) and threatening her, while she cries helplessly beside him.
Sarah becomes increasingly serious in her affair with Brad, even to the point of staking out his house and becoming tearful at not being a part of his life the way Kathy is. Kathy suggests having Sarah and Lucy over for dinner, as Lucy is a dear companion to her and Brad's son. During the dinner, Kathy picks up on the sexual tension between Sarah and Brad. Kathy enlists her mother to come visit the family and spy on Brad during the day. One night, after scoring the winning touchdown during a late-night football game, Brad is delighted to find Sarah up in the bleachers cheering him on. Brad, finally feeling vibrancy in his life, asks Sarah to run away with him. Sarah agrees, and they agree to meet at the park the next night. A drunk Larry goes to McGorvey's house and further harasses him. When Mrs. McGorvey tries to stop him, Larry pushes her down. She has a
Heart Attack , dying later in the hospital - but she still has enough time to write her son a final message: "Please be a good boy." Upon reading the note, Ronnie is overwhelmed at losing the one person who loved him and smashes several items in the house.
When the time comes, Sarah and Lucy go to the
Playground to wait for Brad. Brad, meanwhile, has said good-bye to his son and packed up some belongings. He sneaks out of the house past his unsuspecting wife and starts running to the playground, but he stops by the skateboarders, who challenge him into trying just one jump. Brad can't resist, but his one jump ends badly with him falling and blacking out. Sarah leaves Lucy by herself on the swing as she tries to comfort Ronnie, who has run into the playground, crying hysterically. Seeing that her daughter has gone missing, Sarah runs into the street, screaming Lucy's name. She eventually finds and tearfully embraces her daughter. Sarah and Lucy go home and sleep together in a bed. Brad is taken to the hospital and requests his wife be called, while also disposing of his "good-bye" note to her because he "doesn't need it anymore."
Larry comes to the park to meet Ronnie, and apologizes for everything. However, he is horrified to discover that Ronnie has
Castrated himself so that he can "be a good boy" as his mother wanted. Panicked, yet happy to prove himself a
Hero , Larry takes Ronnie to the
Hospital .
''Main Characters
''Supporting Characters''
For this film, director
Todd Field and novelist Tom Perrotta intended to take the story in a separate and somewhat different direction than the novel. "When Todd and I began collaborating on the script, we were hoping to make something new out of the material, rather than simply reproducing the book onto film," says Perrotta on the film's official site.
- In the book, it is mentioned that Sarah had a Bisexual past when she was at college, dating both men and women. There is also a mention of an affair she had with a female Korean exchange student when she was an Undergrad . This is not mentioned in the film.
- In the book, Mae is befriended by Bertha, a crossing guard at the elementary school where Sarah meets Todd (Brad) whom Mae met in the waiting room at the county prison where both women had sons awaiting trial (Bertha's son was being charged with burglary). Bertha would often go over to her house for lunch and Wine Cooler s. She is not mentioned or featured in the film. In the novel, it is Bertha who drives Ronnie home from the hospital after Mae's death, and who gives the letter to Ronnie, which she had helped Mae write from her hospital bed.
- In the book, Richard leaves Sarah and goes to San Diego for a Slutty Kay convention near the end of the novel, though he claims that he is in San Diego for a business trip. The two agree to a Divorce over the phone, which consists of giving Sarah full custody of Lucy, the house (which he agrees to still pay the Mortgage and Utilities for), and car. In the film he is mentioned as being away on a business trip when Sarah and Brad plan their escape together, but there is no mention of him leaving Sarah. In general, Richard is a far more fully developed character in the novel, with a substantial backstory detailing his first marriage and his two college-aged daughters with his first wife (from whom he was estranged while still paying for their college tuition), the beginnings of his fascination with pornography, and how he met and courted Sarah, who was working as a Starbuck's Barista after dropping out of graduate school.
- Patrick Wilson 's character Brad is named Todd in the novel. According to Perrotta, the name change was due to the fact that the original character name was the same as that of the film's director, Todd Field.
- In the book, Kathy is working on a documentary about World War II veterans, while in the film she is making a documentary about children who lost their fathers and mothers in the Iraq War . Kathy is described as having conceived the World War II documentary to latch on to the 'Greatest Generation' nostalgia that was sweeping the country in the late 90s. The novel is set before the Iraq War (Summer of 2001 ).
- In the novel, Ronald James McGorvey is described as having once been the prime suspect in the disappearance and probable murder of a young girl who attended the school where McGorvey worked as a janitor. The film does not mention this, perhaps to facilitate greater sympathy for McGorvey, who is far less guilt-ridden about his sexual disorder in the novel than in the film.
- Similarly, in the novel, the climactic confrontation at night in the playground between Sarah, McGorvey, and Larry does not end with the discovery that McGorvey has castrated himself (this event never takes place in the novel), but, rather, with McGorvey confessing to the murder of the missing girl in front of Larry, Sarah, and Mary Ann (who secretly sneaks out at night to the playground to smoke cigarettes, lament her loveless marriage, and daydream about her old life with a former boyfriend she is reminded of by "The Prom King").
The DVD was released on
May 1 ,
2007 . It was Todd Field's wish that there be no commentary or special features accompanying the film. Consequently, there will be no special edition of any kind in the future.
