December Boys

Harry Potter discovers the mysteries of the opposite sex in filmmaker Rod Hardy's sweet (indeed, cloying) coming-of-age tale set during the 1960s. Daniel Radcliffe plays Maps, one of four lads at a Catholic orphanage in the Australian outback on a special summer holiday to a seaside village. The dour young Maps loses his virginity to a local girl, but that's only one of the life-changing experiences in store for him and his younger chums, as they also find themselves locked in a friendship-threatening competition when a childless couple—a carnival workman passing himself off as a motorcycle daredevil and his winsome French wife—decide they might adopt one of the boys. In addition, the quartet come to sympathize with a grizzled, grumpy old fisherman who's eternally trying to catch a legendary fish, and they are emotionally rocked when one of their new friends falls very ill. Any one of these plot threads would feel heavy-handed; taken together they're positively lethal. December Boys will satisfy tolerant viewers looking for a dose of bittersweet nostalgia and will be mandatory watching for those interested in Radcliffe's maturation as an actor. But for others, this is strictly optional. (F. Swietek)