Review of December Boys (2007) by Tessa R — 20 Jun 2010

I think I had a pretty idyllic childhood. We certainly weren't rich - my parents were both civil servants - but my life felt rich. The place and time that I call childhood was simple, warm, and easy.

This movie is very much like that. There's a carefree feeling that swept over me when I was watching 'December Boys' that I rarely get from a film. It's nostalgic, yes, and I'm sure the writers and the director were shooting for that.

But there's something else, something hard to touch at work here. This wasn't the most challenging role Daniel Radcliffe has had, I'm sure, but it had to have been fun to do. The boys who played the younger three lads Spark, Misty and Spit, were perfectly cast and their performances rang true.

Rod Hardy's direction was so unlike that of American directors, and that makes it that much better; the film has a feeling of realness and it seems to come genuinely from the heart. For the most part it's an upbeat movie, but there's tragedy too like the death of the fish Henry and the discovery that one of their hosts has cancer.

Life's like that. You take the hard times with the good times, and if your disposition is like mine, you just focus on the good memories. This film will be one of those, for me.