MovieChat Forums > Little Children (2007) Discussion > Kathy 'flinty'

Kathy 'flinty'

posted 11 years ago by Alex_Askew
7 replies | jump to latest

In the description of this movie, Kathy is described as "flinty"...assuming this means cold/unfeeling, do others agree with this description of her? I didn't find her cold at all. I think calling her cold is trying to provide some excuse for Brad's behavior, which I don't think there is.

The worst I saw her do was annoyingly treat Brad like a child when she called him about cancelling his magazines. But honestly, if I were her, I'd be so fed up with him not being an adult that I'd probably do something similar.

He was not taking his responsibilities seriously, and they were having financial difficulties to the point where they needed to borrow money from their parents. I do think that he did a good job watching his son (at least until he got distracted by Sarah), so in that sense, I think it's unfortunate that the two of them couldn't decide that Brad would be a homemaker (though maybe he wouldn't be satisfied with that because of he's got issues). But it seemed like he wasn't interested in taking responsibility for anything, he was just happy to float around aimlessly and expected Kathy to just deal with it. I think she was doing a good job of dealing with that and also being loving with him.

No?

[–] Mystery-Moon 11 years ago

Kathy is the bread winner in the family. She uses that to 'control' her husband, much in the way husbands do housewives. She sees the magazines are unnecessary because they are the things her husband likes to entertain himself with. He even suggested she let him get a cell phone now. As for the parental money scene, no Kathy was telling her mother they were fine money wise, she was making plenty to support them. It was her mother who was harping on that she thought they needed 'extra' money. He wasn't interested in being a lawyer, that was his wife's idea for him to study for it and to repeatedly take the exam. She'd made that decision for him, he wasn't interested in being a lawyer at all. At the start of the movie, when the family is eating breakfast Kathy barely paid any attention to Brad and brushed off his suggestion for the cell then.He was stuck in a situation where he had little control over his life and took some daring chances to live a little with Sarah.
I have read the book and I find the movie glosses over loads of stuff that would make the story far more coherent. Hell, the subplot with Sarah's hubby and the Slutty Kay infatuation totally disappears in the film and Richard never appears again. In the book, Richard actually goes and meets Kay in person.

[–] Alex_Askew 11 years ago

Well I suppose if the book makes it more clear, then that's fine, but having only seen the movie, I didn't really see it portrayed that way.

He's the one who went to law school, right? She didn't force him to do that, did she? If I marry a guy who appears to be trying to become a lawyer, I assume that he wants to become a lawyer, so I will support him in that endeavor. From everything that Kathy could see, it seemed like he was studying for his test and planning to take his test, and still interested in being a lawyer. And if you believe that your spouse will be a lawyer (or any other lucrative career), then you make different plans and assumptions about your future than you would otherwise. If he didn't want to do it, then it was his responsibility to come clean and explain that to her...she's not a mind reader.

It's possible that she would cancel his magazines and not be super excited about the cell phone because she saw that he was getting distracted from what she thought was his goal, and was trying to help him just knuckle down and do it.

It could be that Jennifer Connelly's portrayal just wasn't very accurate. She just seemed fairly warm to me, rather than controlling. Like her tone of voice and just her general demeanor didn't read "cold" to me. They just seemed to be living in different worlds and not knowing it. Except for the magazine conversation on the phone, that did make me cringe because it felt like a mother talking to a kid, but again, he was acting like a kid, so I don't know, I kind of wouldn't blame her.

[–] russfro (116) 2 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mysprouts-740-813856 10 years ago

I agree, if brad was feeling pressured to keep taking the bar and practice then he needed to grow up and figure out what he wanted to do. Even if he wanted to be a stay at home dad which clearly he didn't because he seemed embarrassed that Kathy was the career person, then he needed to talk to his wife. She was operating under the assumption that because he graduated law school that he wanted to be a lawyer which would be a safe assumption.

[–] thirdseasun 10 years ago

Kathy was indulging unhealthy oedipal feelings with the son to distance herself from Brad and disengage sexually and emotionally from her marriage.

[–] angel1008 9 years ago

I was always always curious as to why Brad did NOT have a cell phone. He was home with the child, took him to the park and pool, would have made sense security-wise.

[–] Stenian 9 years ago

She was cold. She was distant. But she was likable. Still I can understand why Brad cheated on her though.