"Little Children" ** (out of four): Disguised as yet another dissection of suburban decay, director Todd Field's tragic misstep rarely rises above the realm of soap opera.

“Little Children” is almost everything director Todd Field’s previous film – 2001’s tragic masterpiece In the Bedroom - is not. Adapted from the novel by Tom Perrotta, who co-wrote the film with Mr. Field, “Children” is another of those examinations of suburban decay which seem to be all the rage since the success of “American Beauty”, but the film is populated with such self-obsessed, distasteful characters, it’s hard to care how or why any of them finds happiness.

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