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Fri 11 Nov 2006Prickly Picket FencesReviewed - Little Children: THERE was a time when American cinema idealised suburbia as the ultimate goal, an idyllic haven of home comforts and good neighbours. It's a different world in more recent movies, from Blue Velvet to American Beauty to Happiness, where suburban locations signal an exposure of the malaises and anxieties lurking under the landscaped lawns.Writer-director Todd Field has been here before, depicting the wrenching tragedy that befalls a New England family in his highly auspicious 2001 debut film, In the Bedroom, and he returns there for another exemplary literary adaptation in Little Children, based on a novel by Tom Perrotta and set in Massachusetts.