Based on a novel by Michael Noonan, this sentimental tale of Australian orphans coming of age by the seaside has little to distinguish it except for the presence of Daniel Radcliffe.
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09/11/07
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December Boys (2007)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:65
Fresh:28
Rotten:37
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Uneventful and far too sentimental.
Theatrical Release:Sep 14, 2007 Limited
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... [More]
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Cormie, Christian Byers, James Fraser
Director: Rod Hardy
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Reviews for December Boys
There is no magic in Daniel Radcliffe's first non-Potter movie: it's an incredible clunker: naff, sentimental, like an episode of the treacly US TV show The Wonder Years.
09/14/07
The absence of a seasoned lead figure is a decisive flaw, with the same to be said about the writing. The religious inserts only make it blasphemous to the gods of cinema.
09/10/07
An engrossing Australian film about four orphans whose deep bonds of friendship are tested during a summer vacation in paradise.
09/14/07
The two halves of December Boys -- the pre-adolescent getting of wisdom and the adolescent getting of action -- never mesh.
09/21/07
Top CriticA coming-of-age tale so treacly it doesn’t just tug your heartstrings, it attempts to glue them to your ribs.
09/15/07
Top CriticDirector Rod Hardy musters his fine cast to provide a nuanced story...about coming of age, friendship, old age and young love.
09/20/07
With a strongly emotional tone, this low-key Australian coming-of-age drama is beautifully filmed and acted. Although it does lay on the nostalgia rather thickly.
09/14/07
Enhanced by an exotic locale, the movie overcomes a well-trodden narrative path and unflinchingly brandishes its sentimentality as it stakes out its crowd-pleasing territory.
09/14/07
Top CriticThere seem to be two movies going on here at the same time, and December Boys would have been better off going all the way with one of them.
09/21/07
Top CriticVisually well-mounted but narratively muddled.
09/13/07
Top CriticDaniel Radcliffe indicates he may be able to shake off Harry Potter in this amiable little drama.
09/14/07
This charming tale of a quartet of Australian orphans who share a life-altering holiday in the 1960s should appeal to sentimental adults old enough to wax nostalgic over their own adolescence.
09/14/07
December Boys is good, but not great; and as far as coming of age stories are concerned.
09/14/07
The film squanders its rich sense of adolescent discovery with an undercurrent of sexism and the uninteresting ebb and flow of water-logged metaphor.
09/09/07
Well-intentioned, but teeth-grindingly earnest, with a voice-over that seems to consist entirely of clichés.
09/14/07
Radcliffe -- in full benevolent leadership -- clearly has a future as a young adult performer once he shelves Harry Potter's wand once and for all.
09/14/07
December Boys bathes in the summer sun and sea breezes even as it exudes the energy of youth and promise.
09/17/07
Top CriticRadcliffe is good at showing vulnerability but without the skills to give it gradation. The magic doesn't work for him this time.
11/03/07
Top CriticSweet-natured but terribly dull.
09/14/07
Latest News for December Boys
December 11, 2007:
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August 25, 2007:
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