2008 Woodie Awards
"December Boys" meets chilly reception
Samantha Stephens '11
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Entertainment
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Being Harry Potter must not be thrilling enough for Daniel Radcliffe. I mean think about it, in the last year he has performed naked on London stages, appeared as a hormone-raging version of himself in Ricky Gervais' "Extras." Now he is playing the world's oldest orphan in his new film.
"The December Boys," based on a novel by Michael Noonan and directed by Rod Hardy, tells the story of four boys in the 1960s who belong to a Catholic orphanage in Australia. They are known as the December Boys because their birthdays are in December.
As a present for their birthdays, the nuns allow the boys to go on holiday to the Australian seaside where a family takes them in for Christmas break. The boys, Maps (Daniel Radcliffe), Misty (Lee Cormie), Sparks (Christian Byers), and Spit (James Fraser) soon find out that a neighboring couple wants to adopt one of the boys by the end of the holiday.
The charm of the film lies in the fact that each of the younger boys has an endearing quality.
Misty, whose older self narrates the film, is sensitive, very religious, and hopeful; definitely a character the audience not only feels sympathy for but wants to adopt.
Sparks knows all about machinery and has a very clever mind, Spit, known for spitting, has great confidence - so much that he tells an old crusty fisherman that he will be able to catch the big fish the fisherman has been after for years.
Then there is Maps, the most rebellious of the bunch. Maps smokes and shares cigarettes with the young boys, provides them with newspaper clipping of girls in brassieres, and encourages their curiosity to see topless women, which seems a bit disturbing for boys that are 9 to 11 years old. But hey, it's the 60s!
While it is nice to see Radcliffe without his Harry Potter garb, seeing him as Maps, who has to be at the very least 17, frolicking with little boys seems weird, especially since Radcliffe is 18 in real life and looks nearly 20. It might not seem like much, but seeing him next to those kids did creep me out a little. Luckily, Maps does get a friend his own age, Lucy (Teresa Palmer), who ends up becoming his love interest, something that might be kind of unsettling for fans who only see Radcliffe as the squeaky clean Harry Potter. Needless to say, in this role, he is not so innocent.
"The December Boys," based on a novel by Michael Noonan and directed by Rod Hardy, tells the story of four boys in the 1960s who belong to a Catholic orphanage in Australia. They are known as the December Boys because their birthdays are in December.
As a present for their birthdays, the nuns allow the boys to go on holiday to the Australian seaside where a family takes them in for Christmas break. The boys, Maps (Daniel Radcliffe), Misty (Lee Cormie), Sparks (Christian Byers), and Spit (James Fraser) soon find out that a neighboring couple wants to adopt one of the boys by the end of the holiday.
The charm of the film lies in the fact that each of the younger boys has an endearing quality.
Misty, whose older self narrates the film, is sensitive, very religious, and hopeful; definitely a character the audience not only feels sympathy for but wants to adopt.
Sparks knows all about machinery and has a very clever mind, Spit, known for spitting, has great confidence - so much that he tells an old crusty fisherman that he will be able to catch the big fish the fisherman has been after for years.
Then there is Maps, the most rebellious of the bunch. Maps smokes and shares cigarettes with the young boys, provides them with newspaper clipping of girls in brassieres, and encourages their curiosity to see topless women, which seems a bit disturbing for boys that are 9 to 11 years old. But hey, it's the 60s!
While it is nice to see Radcliffe without his Harry Potter garb, seeing him as Maps, who has to be at the very least 17, frolicking with little boys seems weird, especially since Radcliffe is 18 in real life and looks nearly 20. It might not seem like much, but seeing him next to those kids did creep me out a little. Luckily, Maps does get a friend his own age, Lucy (Teresa Palmer), who ends up becoming his love interest, something that might be kind of unsettling for fans who only see Radcliffe as the squeaky clean Harry Potter. Needless to say, in this role, he is not so innocent.
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