| The
Review: |
"Tadpole" is a movie that takes
risky steps and isn't afraid to tackle taboo issues, but when
it comes time for it to deliver on its premise, it chickens
out and backs down into hiding. With a plot that contains
elements of statutory rape and young men fantasizing about
older women, a lot could have been done with the material,
had there been more of a sense of realism, as opposed to a
cheap venue into some very effective situational comedy. Sadly,
the laugh are large but the deeper stuff is small by comparison,
and the film just doesn't add up in the end. ***
The plot centers around Oscar Grubman
(Aaron Stanford), a fifteen-year-old New York City prep school
student who spends his days reading Voltaire and brushing
aside the countless girls of his generation who would cut
off their right arm to go out with him. He's too interested
in older women to take much note of those his own age; we
learn this when he begins making cat eyes at Eve (Sigourney
Weaver), his stepmother, wife of his college professor father,
Stanley (John Ritter). ***
Things get even more zany when
Oscar, in a drunken stupor, stumbles across Eve's best friend,
Diane (Bebe Neuwirth), a chiropractor who offers him a backrub
that turns into a night of passion. Immediately thinking of
the reprecussions this one-night stand will have on his "relationship"
with Eve, Oscar pleads with Diane not to tell anyone about
the incident, and then spends the entire next day worrying
about it. This leads up to a dinner scene involving Oscar,
Diane, Eve, and Stanley, where the tension of the situation
gives rise to some extremely gratifying laughs. ***
As a comedy, "Tadpole" is never
really short on humor, most of which can be accredited to
Neuwirth's spunky handling of her character, and Stanford's
deer-in-the-headlights approach to Oscar. But in going for
the guffaw, director Gary Winick and writers Heather McGowan
and Niels Mueller have missed out on the opportunity of a
lifetime: to show that age doesn't always provide a barrier
bwtween love or attraction. The concept of generation-gap
relationships isn't something new to the movies, or to society
in some cases; it's been used as a source of humor many times
before, most memorably in the "American Pie" movies, where
a high school senior and later college man is infatuated with
a woman twice his age. ***
Here, it also provides humor, but
at the expense of reality. I had serious doubts as to whether
or not Stanley Grubman would have been as carefree about the
revelation that his son was having an affair with a 40-year-old
woman; I don't care if he is a college professor. Diane as
well seems unafflicted by the possibility of being arrested
and imprisoned for her actions, thus rendering the entire
series of events lacking in force. It's funny, sure, but think
of how much more it could have been if the filmmakers had
given it room to grow outside of the 78-minute running time.
***
There's a rather interesting dialogue
exchange between Diane and Eve after the affair has been revealed:
when told that she would have done the same thing if their
situations were reversed, Eve says, "With a fifteen-year-old?
Not on your life." It's Diane's reply that got me thinking:
"Not just a fifteen-year-old. A smart, sweet, passionate person."
There it is, the spark for an argument about age-gap relationships
that could have been given a rather interesting treatment
here. But then I considered how the film would have gone about
it: Oscar clearly doesn't care about Diane, and to have him
and Eve ride off into the sunset while his clueless father
remains unnoticed would be too awkward and messy. ***
As for the rest of the movie, it's
all in the eye of the beholder. The digital film photography
was somewhat dizzying but not completely off-putting, and
the performances are quite good despite being altogether wasted
on some lacking characters. There's much to admire in the
way Winick crafts the humor of the film, but in retrospect,
it's simply not enough. For a movie that showed so much potential,
I wanted more.
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| Image
and Sound |
The 1.78:1 digital video image is
an oddity in that the usual DVD flaws and blemishes are harder
to spot, considering the sketchy manner in which the movie
has been shot. Much of the picture retains a washed-out, nearly-colorless
look, while edges are somewhat soft in appearance. Contrast
is wanting in certain instances, and there is an abundance
of noise throughout the entire presentation. But whether or
not this is the result of bad DVD authoring remains to be
seen: much of this is probably due to the intended look on
the part of the director's choice of digital, so it's difficult
to discern what's supposed to be there, and what isn't. ***
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is
mainly a dialogue-driven piece with some impressively recorded
music that is full of ambiance. Nothing flashy here, but it
sounds very clean and is well-presented.
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