Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25439 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-24
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

DVD Description
Based on Michael Noonan's novel by the same name, December Boys recounts the tale of four close-knit orphans in Australia, called the December Boys as they were all born in the same month, who leave their orphanage for a holiday by the sea. Having all but given up hope of ever being adopted, the boys' friendships will be tested when rumours that a couple are interested in adopting one of them. The four boys find themselves competing to gain a chance at living a real family life.

Synopsis
Based on the novel by Michael Noonan, December Boys is a touching coming-of-age drama set in Australia in the 1960s. Maps (Daniel Radcliffe), Misty (Lee Cormie), Sparks (Christian Byers), and Spit (James Fraser) are four best friends living in a Catholic orphanage, each hoping to be adopted by a decent family, but learning that dreams don't always come true--and that adults often let kids down. Because they were all born in December, they are the first group to be taken to stay with two of the orphanage's benefactors--Bandy (Jack Thompson) and Skipper (Kris McQuade)--an older couple who have offered to house the kids during the Christmas season. As the boys frolic by the sea and experience other new and exciting things, they quickly discover that there is much more to the world than they had ever imagined. However, when Misty overhears that Teresa (Victoria Hill) and her husband, Fearless (Sullivan Stapleton), are considering adopting one of the boys, their carefree fun turns to bitter rivalry as the boys compete for their affections. The only one not caught up in all the furore is Maps, who is too busy experiencing his first romance with Lucy (Teresa Palmer).
Filmed in Adelaide and on Kangaroo Island, and directed by long-time TV veteran Rod Hardy, December Boys features beautiful locales, a talented cast, and a terrific soundtrack, including period songs by Norman Greenbaum ('Spirit In The Sky'), the Easybeats ('Friday On My Mind'), and Creedence Clearwater Revival ('Who'll Stop The Rain').

Customer Reviews

Really bad
Everyone watches this because they want to see Daniel Radcliffe in something other than Harry Potter. Ok. Fine. And he doesn't do a bad job. The only thing is, he's not in the main role, but he's in many more scenes than the main character. He's only really been casted as Maps so that they can have his name on the front of the box. They've added in whole scenes just to make up a relationship between Maps (Radcliffe) and some random girl who didn't figure in the book. WHY?!?

It's an ok film. But not if you want it to be close to the book. It's been changed so much since the book. I think it's a real shame that it's changed. Because the book is fab. And the film isn't.

What you should really think of a film like this
The mistake most people will make when they buy a film such as this is that they will judge it upon Daniel Radcliffe's performance. In doing so, the other features of the film will quite easily get glossed over.

If you watch this film and focus entirely upon Mr. Radcliffe then you will miss some things of noteworthy interest. The setting is a beautiful spot, and some of the ideas do make you think, regardless of what I may say later on in this review. But regardless of what I may say to dissuade you, I dare say you would be interested to know just how Daniel Radcliffe did get on.

For starters there's the accent. In my opinion the Australian accent is certainly not the most difficult in the world, and Daniel does quite alright in handling it; though when his character requires him to display further emotion through an increase in volume of speech, it tends to falter a little. Then there's his handling of the love scene. I heard the Harry Potter - Cho Chang sequence took up to forty takes (I'm sure Daniel didn't mind), but this one doesn't seem as well rehearsed. I'm not going to elaborate in any detail, but to say that it's a cringe at best is almost an understatement. Then there's his character analysis and portrayal. I wouldn't be spoiling the plot too much if I said "The December Boys" is about four orphans in Australia who are all born in December (hence the name) and are given a holiday to the coast, where they stay with a family and enjoy themselves more than at the orphanage. Radcliffe plays a guy called Maps who is the eldest of the December boys. Be under no illusion, regardless of what the front cover looks like, or what it says on the back, Daniel is not the main character, that honour lies with the bespectacled little spotty kid called Misty. Radcliffe's handling of his character is, at best, unoriginal. Though he is playing what you could call similar roles to those found in Harry Potter and Equus, one would still expect a certain variety and originality to shine through with a new project. But once again we are treated with a dose of the Daniel Radcliffe Deadpan Default, a style which he seems to apply to every character he plays. As a result, Daniel Radcliffe fans will lap it all up and call him a superb talent once more, but for those of us who see through its very tenuous defences, it takes very little prompting to call Daniel's performance majestically mediocre.

I have very little doubt that he will continue to get decent film roles as many film-makers will be looking for his identity to launch their film, as has happened with "The December Boys". And as he continues to make films and become richer and richer people will still think, "Perhaps this time we'll see the real Daniel Radcliffe, the one that can act and has just been hiding away all his talent for the right role." How mistaken they are. The right roles will continue to come for him, but he will give them the same treatment he has given everything else, a fact that was very clear in "Equus". The words said by Salieri to Mozart in another of Peter Shaffer's plays, "Amadeus", come to mind: "He out of the ordinary created legends, but I, out of legends, created only the ordinary."

Anyway, referring back to the film, regardless of Daniel Radcliffe's performance, the film lacks a certain fullness about it. These boys go to the coast, but not enough happens there for the audience to believe that this was a really special place for them. There is a certain sense of depth in the film, but it is accompanied with such a vast chasm of emptiness that it just seems hollow.

Throughout the film Misty is expressing his desire to be adopted and have parents, and yet when the opportunity finally arrives he rejects it in favour of sticking with his December chums, but the sense of comradeship and friendship between the boys doesn't come across as strong as Misty's desire to be adopted. The film centres around this idea of strong friendship between the boys, but because the audience cannot believe it is as strong as the film obviously wants it to be, the film is imbued with a very weak thread running right through the core of the story.

The only things keeping you watching the film are the speculation as to whether the boys are going to be adopted or not and whether Daniel Radcliffe is going to give us a real treat. Both turn out to be anticlimaxes, leaving the film with a certain flatness when it delivers its final speech which is obviously supposed to drive the weaker minded of us to tears. At the end of the film I did indeed leap up and run out of the room, but for quite a different reason.

The whole film, especially the ending, has very much a literary feel about it, and it didn't surprise me that it originally came from a novel. The film gives the story a sense that it would be better being explored through reading rather than watching.

So, by all means buy this film if you're interested in how Daniel Radcliffe fares outside the Harry Potter comfort zone. But prepare yourself to be disappointed if you try to look for stimulation in the film beyond his performance. I gave this film an average rating because it was an average film. It has some good bits, some less good bits, and above all it has Daniel Radcliffe, and let's be honest, that's always going to bring in the viewers, isn't it?

Misty, water-colored memories...
A man remembers a special time in his youth when he and three other orphans were given a holiday at the sea to celebrate their December birthdays. While there, the boys discover a neighbor couple that is considering adopting one of them.

I wanted to like this movie, but it was a big let-down. The entire thing feels like a movie trailer, random scenes fading in and out with minimal dialogue, leading nowhere. The oldest of the four orphans is played by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), but he has relatively little screen time, mutters only a handful of words, and has no chance to shine. He struggles through some young-boy-coming-of-age stuff that feels really awkward. The other boys don't fare any better; they're all blandly interchangeable and we never get a sense of the deep bond they're supposed to have. The photography is lovely, but the script just meanders through the holiday and then it's over. Nothing is resolved and even potentially touching scenes are ruined by poor dialogue and editing. Disappointing.