Tadpole
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Movie Reviews of Tadpole
Movie Review: A little comedy that tries hard
Summary: 3 Stars
"Tadpole" is a slight little comedy that tries and fails to be more than it is. Its director, Gary Winick, won the Director's Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. Miramax then paid the producers of this independent project several million dollars for it. Who will ever understand the business of Hollywood?The movie tells the story of a bright, privileged, fifteen-year old New Yorker named Oscar [Aaron Stanford] who is in love with his stepmother, Eve [Sigourney Weaver]. He comes home from prep school for Thanksgiving determined to let her know. His plan is easier thought up than done. The house is crowded with friends and family, his loving father [John Ritter] is always in the way, and attractive girls his age keep popping up at the wrong times. Frustrated, he goes out and gets drunk one night and ends up at Diane's [Bebe Neuwirth] house. They make love, which complicates matters because Diane is Eve's best friend. The kid may have had his affair with an older woman, but not only is she the wrong woman, she also has a hard time keeping a secret.
The cast is fun and makes the most of the script, which has moments of great wit but doesn't seem entirely fleshed out, especially with its ..., cop-out ending. I personally had a problem with Stanford's role. He is a fine actor, one to keep an eye on. He was twenty-four when he made the movie, and, through no fault of his own, his Oscar has the look and body language of someone in his twenties, rather than someone who is fifteen. [I didn't know Stanford's age when I watched the movie.] Consequently, much of what is supposed to be shockingly fresh and funny gets watered down. Did the filmmakers cast it this way on purpose, perhaps fearing that some people in this oh so politically correct world would not be amused by the premise?
Movie Review: Something a little different, but no great shakes
Summary: 3 Stars
This independent film is about a fifteen year old boy who is in love with his 40 year old stepmother Eve, played by Weaver. Neuwirth plays Eve's sexually charged friend Diane, and Ritter is the boy's father. While home on school break, the boy plans to reveal his love to his stepmother. But before he can, he has a one night stand with Diane while drunk. She is very casual about the sex, but he is overwrought with the possibility that Eve might find out. In the best scene of the movie, Diane drops hints about the affair while the four of them are eating in a restaurant together. Afterward, the boy confesses his love for his stepmother, and she is obviously conflicted, allowing him to kiss her. Ultimately, she rejects him and he moves on to a healthier interest in girls his own age. The movie returns often to a theme of Oscar's enthusiasm for life, which is the key to his attractiveness to older women, who are surrounded by bored people. Eve herself is a rare individual who has maintained the spark of youth into her adulthood. All of the adult actors do a serviceable job, although Neuwirth outshines Weaver, and Ritter outshines them both. The boy who plays Oscar is fine, except for scenes in which he is comically uncomfortable, which he plays too broadly. The movie is fine for what it is, but somehow seemed too thin to sustain its running length. There is a lack of subplots, and the conflict is fairly muted, with not much risk of loss for any of the characters. The most potent conflict would be between Oscar and his father, but Ritter's character remains blissfully ignorant. As it is, we are sympathetic toward Oscar's plight, but don't really feel emotionally involved in the outcome. Instead, we have a prurient interest in who will sleep with Oscar.Movie Review: Zip It Up
Summary: 3 Stars
"Tadpole" is a fairly interesting film. In the era of abstinence, it assumes a permissive attitude about teen sex. Aaron Stanford who will soon play Pyro in "X2" gives an edgy performance as the teen Oscar Grubman who loves Voltaire and pines for his father's wife. John Ritter as dad Stanley does a nice job of being fatherly and out-of-touch. Sigourney Weaver's Eve is a brilliant cardiologist who is the apple of Oscar's eye. Their scene where they try to substitute another organ, the "liver," for "heart" is humorous, "you set my heart aquiver, you broke my liver" (or whatever the dialogue was). The best moments in the film belong to Bebe Neuwirth as the cradle-robbing Diane who is a free spirit. She has a fling with the wonderfully obtuse Phil played by Adam Le Fever, but doesn't let that get in the way of a little midnight fun with Oscar. She urges her friend Eve to put a little spice in her life and consider an affair with a 15-year old. Being as she makes this sound even remotely reasonable, she ought to gain special recognition. Robert Iler as Charlie does a nice job as well. I wanted to see this movie in the theatre & missed it; so I was surprised about 3 weeks later to find the DVD. The digital video shooting was distracting for me. Combined with some of the soap opera dialogue, I felt like I was watching television rather than a feature film. Still, it's reasonably entertaining. The restaurant scene with Diane sticking her foot in Osacar's crotch while he's busy trying to impress Eve and Stanley is oblivious is highly entertaining. So despite its shortcomings, you might as well zip it up and try Tadpole for a one-nighter. Enjoy!Movie Review: Something to watch on a Sunday afternoon.
Summary: 3 Stars
There are a lot of things to like about this movie. The acting is excellent. The script is well written and there are more than a few laugh-out-loud funny scenes in it. The reason I am only giving it 3 stars is because I feel it never really "moved" me. After watching it, I felt as though I had watched a good movie, but nothing about it is really original or mind blowing. It's just a small quirky movie, and at only 77 minutes I was disappointed with the abrumpt ending.
Having said that, Tadpole is certainly worth seeing and is 100 times better than most of the "Blockbusters" that go on to gross hundreds of millions.
Movie Review: Cute
Summary: 3 Stars
A cute, though ultimately flawed, film. Excellent performances from the luminous Sigourney Weaver (who never seems to age!), the hysterical John Ritter (RIP), and the SEXY Bebe Neuwirth (who has yet to disappoint me in any of her work). The story is a little weird, a boy with a crush on his step mom, and yet completely believable. In Oscar, Aaron Grubman has found a quirky character that any precocious teenage male (such as myself) can relate to.