Little Men **** (2016, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina García, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri, Alfred Molina, Talia Balsam) – Movie Review

Ira Sachs’s 2016 family drama Little Men is a very sweet and also very sad movie, beautifully acted, wisely written and nicely realised. Greg Kinnear does wonders to light up a none-too-sympathetic role as the weak-willed, conflicted dad and Chilean actress Paulina García – from Gloria (2013) – gives a lovely, graceful performance.

Co-writer/ director Ira Sachs tells the wise, amusing and moving story of a couple of nice kids, whose new friendship is sorely tested when Jake (Theo Taplitz)’s parents (Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle) inherit the Brooklyn dress shop run by Tony (Michael Barbieri)’s mother (Paulina García) and decide to put an impossibly big hike on the rent to renew her lease. The trouble all starts when Jake’s grandfather dies and the boy moves in with his cash-poor parents to the old man’s Brooklyn house, next to the shop, run by family friend Leonor Calvelli.

It turns out, of course, that the two Little Men are the real grown-ups of the crowd, far more adult and wise than their parents. Eventually, the kids are going to be alright, but in the meantime everyone is going to get hurt and sustain some damage. Life’s a bitch.

Ira Sachs is the maker of Love Is Strange (2014).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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