Todd Field doesn't make movies very often - his last was his feature debut as writer-director, In the Bedroom in 2001 - but his intensely realistic, conflicted characters outlast hundreds of screen heroes and villains in the mind. He's the poet of middle-class awkwardness in affluent but unhappy homes and a director actors must love working for: I can't remember a middling performance in either film and Kate Winslet, one of its three Oscar nominations, is every bit as good here as in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is to say about as good as it gets.

Little Children, co-written by Tom Perrotta from his novel, takes its time letting us get to know the characters of Winslet and the househusband (Patrick Wilson) she meets in a kids' playground and it pays off: these are people with complex lives and emotions, the sort Hollywood usually ignores. This film is full of them in a fine display of ensemble acting with tales skilfully intercut and cause and effect well to the fore, but rarely how you expect. It's a riveting watch from the off and without being plot-driven, it has a few set-pieces you won't forget: the local "pervert" clearing kids from a neighbourhood swimming pool faster than Jaws and a moment of horrible embarrassment for Winslet's husband that put me in mind of the other Todd, Solondz, and his suburban masterwork, Happiness.

Not every scene works, but the hit ratio is very high in a piece that toys with a raft of themes - paedophilia, parenthood, post-traumatic stress and a refusal to grow up among them - entertainingly and thoughtfully. I think fans of Little Miss Sunshine, another high-quality film with multiple lead actors, will enjoy it as much as I did but unlike that little gem, this sadly didn't find much of an audience in the cinema. I hope the DVD release rights that wrong.