Wish-fulfillment for theediscerning (Tadpole (DVD))

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	Tadpole (DVD)
Date:	02/07/03 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Oh to be a tadpole...

Disadvantages: Even if life is short (78 minutes)

Aka One for the boys. (Also aka something else on another op-site!)

Yes, Tadpole is an American film about the burgeoning problems of a teenager?s love life, and it is a comedy, but don?t let that combination put you off. (What?s more, it also features that staple, someone with a passion for someone inappropriate, and ignorant of everyone else?s approaches.) But instead of one of the larky, snide, ugly things Hollywood produces, which presumes jokes about semen and flatulence are still humorous, this is a thankfully adult comedy regarding teenage life.

All well and said, but it would still rank as something to aspire to for many teenage lads worldwide.

Tadpole is the nickname of the film?s hero, Oscar, who is returning from a New York state boarding school to his father?s City flat for Thanksgiving. On the way home, with his best friend, said friend is surprised to see Oscar give a pretty girl the brush-off. The explanation he gets is that her hands showed too little life history.

In actual fact all of her was too young for Tadpole in his current frame of mind. For he has a major attraction for someone much older ~ a crush that, to his mind, proves that 15-40 is not just a tennis score.

Unfortunately, that passion is for his own step-mother, his father?s new wife, Eve.

At a high-brow party in the apartment for his home-coming, with his father?s professorial History academic friends, we see him enamoured with Eve ~ and if we can?t see it we can hear it as the Charles Aznavour song She is played with no subtlety too.

This is where we as viewers have to get to grips quickly with the fact that he is enamoured of his step-mum. As we know, this is not exactly incest, but it?s still a bit awkward. Will the young shaver be able to steal his Dad?s woman?

Well, not if his dad has anything to do with it. He?s invited the awkwardly named Daphne Tisch along too ~ a colleague?s very plain daughter. Dad thinks
she's a beaut, though, and that the two are a great match, and gets Tadpole to walk her home. Instead he packs her off in a taxi and gets sloshed in a bar, with another older woman.

After this deprives him of ownership of his wallet he is lucky to meet up with his parents? best friend, who is on her own way back from Tadpole?s dad?s do ~ the very appealing Diane. She is also in the 40-odd age bracket, is very good looking, is nice and tactile, as we get to see ~ but when your heart is set on your step-mother, only your step-mother will do (apparently).

The tipsy Oscar ends up at Diane?s, and flat out on her chiropractic couch. He gets to be topless, she gets to giving him a rub-down with sympathy, but it ends up a lot further, courtesy of Diane wearing a scarf ?borrowed? from Eve.

The following morning we, as Oscar, find Diane?s boyfriend in the apartment on our way out, but we survive with his ignorance intact. But the quandary for his imminent future is managing to still consummate his crush on Eve, with the danger that his night with Diane will come out in the open.

Cue a great scene at a restaurant with Dad, Eve, Diane and Oscar. This scene has an almost Woody Allenesque approach in its cutting and dialogue, which is perhaps inevitable when the more high-brow, eloquent, white New York is seen on screen. But there is also a great balance with teenage humour, as Tadpole?s side-burns (stuck on for Eve?s nostalgia?s sake) end up elsewhere.

This is indicative of the whole balance of the film ~ great quick bits of comedy, in a fine balance with subtler, more dramatic moods, and a much more mature dialogue than your average Hollywood film with a male teenage lead. There is a great scene when Diane?s whole coterie of girlfriends attach themselves to Oscar and he remains completely stoic and ignorant of their attraction. You could imagine how American Pie-High Dude College Drop-Outs 3 : Where?s My Europe (or something) mi
ght play it ~ and it certainly wouldn?t be with all concerned discussing ancient philosophy.

With a film only 78 minutes long, one of the things to consider when reviewing it is that there is only so much plot you can reveal. (Hopefully theediscerning has pulled it off again, and given what at first look seems too much away, but isn't the whole story as you find in the cinema. That's always the intention, anyway. And anyway this film in point is more of character, humour and stylish acting that plot.) The other is to make sure you impress that it really is worth bothering with.

This film is really worth bothering with. The acting throughout is outstanding. Oscar is played by Aaron Stanford, who was in his first film at the time. He?s since progressed via the awful 25th Hour to be Pyro in X-Men 2, so here might be the debut of one to watch. He?s subtle, mature, believable when spouting Voltaire quotes and French dialogue ~ as you would expect from a 25-year old playing a 15-year old. Ho hum.

Eve is played by the real box office draw here, Sigourney Weaver. Taking one of her more esoteric film roles ~ and one of her smallest wage packets, as the fortnight?s shoot meant the whole film was made for half a million dollars ~ she proves herself to be very versatile. There is an element of send-up in some of the scenes (particularly when She is heard for the first of many times, and later in a sequence which is a pure fantasy of carriage rides and champagne), but she is just right for the part, and spot-on when the quieter, subtler parts of the role are needed. Just one speech of hers handicaps her part, when Oscar sees her at work, but that is not her fault.

The stand-out though, for theediscerning, is Diane, played by Bebe Neuwirth. Why on this evidence she has concentrated on TV (sorry, Frasier fans), animation voices and bit-parts for so much of her career is a mystery. She is perfect for the role, with a slight cattiness when
able to wind Oscar up about revealing their night-long history together, and an assured intelligence when discussing matters with Eve later.

If anything, though, she is too much better looking than Eve (heck, even waking up in her leopard-print bedroom looks like a *very* nice option indeed) it might to some minds detract from the feel that Oscar is sensible and right in his love. We have to remind ourselves, as we cry for him to stay with Diane (her boyfriend regardless), that amour fou will keep Oscar obsessed with his target, no matter what the opposition.

And so, for someone who has only very rarely seen the appeal of being a character in any movie, theediscerning reports that Tadpole?s life here would have been a perfect initiation. Let?s face it, who would actually want to live the life of any other recent teen comedy hero? Being Oscar would seem to mean having the pick of a whole host of females that would be most educative, and some of Diane?s lunch-friends were very attractive too.

But it?s Oscar?s lot that lumps him with his crush on Eve, which is what the film boils down to. You really ought to catch this Tadpole in your nets to find out what happens.

As theediscerning, many years later than Oscar, netted his own Diane, he would say that she wasn?t quite so enamoured with the film, finding it not quite special enough, though entertaining and humorous. As a wannabe Tadpole, theediscerning really liked the style, freshness and intelligence, as well as admired (and again, envied) the situation Oscar was in. She gave the film 3.5 out of 5, he a confident 4.

Recommended; just not for viewing at the same time as your (step-)mum.

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