The December Boys: Coming-of-Age Film Warms the Heart

Many people have been curious as to what kind of careers the young cast of Harry Potter would have now that they're growing up. Daniel Radcliffe is not even the lead in his first effort to move beyond Hogwarts--despite what Warner Independent Pictures has been marketing. December Boys is a low-key, sometimes charming little piece about growing up, family and the bonds of friendship.

The film opens in the 1960s at an orphanage in Australia, where four young boys get a lucky break and are whisked away on a summer vacation at the beach. This circle of friends, known as the December Boys because of their birthdays, includes Maps (Radcliffe), Spark (Christian Byers), Spit (James Fraser) and Misty (Lee Cormie).

Father Scully (Frank Gallacher) gets the boys to hop in the back of his car and drives them to their getaway. The group stays with a retired naval officer, Bandy McAnsh (Jack Thompson), and his wife, Skipper (Kris McQuade), who are patrons of the church. There's also a crusty old fisherman who, in an almost Captain Ahab-fashion, seeks a giant fish he named Henry, and a mysterious black stallion that apparently catches fish.

Soon after arriving and playing in the water and on the sand, the group focuses on different things: Spark and Spit team up and cause trouble together; Maps has a summer fling with Lucy (Teresa Palmer), a beautiful girl who's also vacationing at the beach; and Misty gets an inkling that a young local couple, Fearless (Sullivan Stapleton)--so nicknamed because he is supposedly a motorcycle stuntman--and Teresa (Victoria Hill), are planning to adopt a child and tries to impress them.

The other boys soon find out that Fearless and Teresa are planning to adopt and some amusing scenes unfold as the group tries to one-up each other in the sweetness department. Maps is the only holdout. He figures he is past adoption age, and his bitterness leads him ever closer to Lucy. Meanwhile, it is learned that Skipper has cancer, and Bandy has to deal with the impending loss as well as care for his guests. As the film moves to its bittersweet conclusion and present-day epilogue, one cannot help but be moved, if only a little.