December Boys
By Karen WilsonAverage User Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief mild language
Theatrical Release: September 14, 2007
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 105 minutes
Plot: Four Australian orphans living in the Outback during the ‘50s travel to the seaside for a joyous winter vacation. Recounted with voiceover from the hero Misty now grown up, as he remembers the close friendships with his fellow December birthdays and how one of the boys was almost adopted by a local childless couple.
Sex/Nudity: Mooning, peeping tom glimpses of bare breasts and a first sexual experience for Radcliffe’s character, plus some (historically accepted) teenage smoking and drinking.
Violence/Gore: The boys fight with each other, and one almost drowns. We also glimpse the scars of a mastectomy survivor in the shower.
Profanity: Some light cursing, like calling someone an "ass."
Which Kids Will Like It?
It’s much too mature for toddlers and grade schoolers, even if they loved Daniel Radcliffe in the early Harry Potter films. This movie is best left for older, mature children who perhaps have a burgeoning crush on Radcliffe or love a well-told story with strong characters who are struggling through adolescence, like in Reese Witherspoon’s The Man in the Moon.
Will Parents Like It?
While the plot does ramble a bit in the final third of the movie, the likable child actors horsing around by the ocean, strengthening their friendships and falling in love for the first time should charm adult viewers with a nostalgic streak.
Kaboose Review: In between shooting Harry Potter installments five and six, Daniel Radcliffe made a few concerted career moves to get out from behind the shadow of The Boy Who Lived. He appeared in the West End revival of the ‘70s psycho-sexual drama Equus, filmed an episode of comedian Ricky Gervais’s HBO series Extras and starred in the adaptation of the Australian novel by Michael Noonan, December Boys. All three roles show an almost shocking level of maturity on the part of the now 18-year-old actor and exhibit his comfort with gently mocking his internationally known character as well as appearing in sexually charged scenes.
For children who’ve grown older with the release of each element in the Harry Potter franchise, it will be refreshing to see their hero put down the wand and take on real life coming-of-age struggles. As the orphan Maps, Radcliffe’s character travels with his three best friends from their home in a Catholic orphanage in the Australian outback to a Christmas time vacation with a friendly couple of parishioners who own a small cottage by the sea. There they join the tight-knit community of locals—crotchety old man Shellback who’s always fishing for that one allusive fish, the minister Father Scully, an uncle and his comely teenage niece Lucy and a young, childless couple Teresa and Fearless, who works for the nearby circus.
The film’s narrator Misty overhears that Teresa and Fearless may want to adopt one of the orphans and quickly works to ingratiate himself by setting the table and painting pictures for his new parents. But the longing for a traditional family isn’t the only issue for these boys and their friends. Their kindly hostess is going through another relapse with breast cancer, Maps encounters his first sexual relationship (and heartbreak) with the precocious Lucy and Misty has a religious vision of mother Mary when he nearly drowns in the inlet.
All of these mature plot points could make for provocative and lively conversation with older children going through similar growing pains. With its period setting, this is also a great movie for discussing changing social norms, religious institutions and health care. For self-aware children using literature, art and the movies to explore their own life experiences, you couldn’t ask for a better screen idol than the thoughtful Radcliffe. He and his discerning career choices could set a great example for all of those other flighty former child stars that seem to populate Hollywood.
Directed by: Rod Hardy
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe (Maps), Lee Cormie (Misty), Christian Byers (Spark) James Fraser (Spit), Jack Thompson (Bandy McAnsh), Teresa Palmer (Lucy)
Karen Wilson is a freelance writer living in New York City.
Star Rating
2.5 Stars
