Tadpole

Coming home from school for Thanksgiving, Oscar (Stanford) tells his best friend Charlie (Iler) that the reason he isn't interested in any of the girls at school is because he is already in love with someone. Oscar is considered a forty year-old in a fifteen year-old body but when the women he is in love with is revealed to be his stepmother Eve (Weaver), Charlie thinks his friend might be going to far.

Once in a while a small budget, character driven comedy comes along and it turns out to be a real gem. Tadpole is one of those movies.

This is a brilliantly acted comedy in the vain of The Graduate that has a sharp and extremely witty script. It is all about overconfidence, obsession and unrequited love with a big element of farce thrown in their for good measure.

The cast are superb. Bebe Neuwirth as man-eating, masseuse Diane is hilarious and her interaction with Oscar, especially in restaurant scene is tremendously funny. Sigourney Weaver, as the object of Oscar's affections, has little to do in the first half of the movie but comes into her own in the finale reminding us what is great comedic and dramatic actress she can be. John Ritter is also good as Oscar's Dad Stanley, who doesn't have a clue what's going on until that all important restaurant scene. He plays the part with a certain naivety and trust that a father can have for a beloved son splendidly, only to have it thrown back at him in the final act.

The star of the show however, is Aaron Stanford. For a debut feature (a part that went on to win him the role of Pyro in X2), Stanford holds his own amongst a very experienced supporting cast and shows that he is an emerging star to watch. His interactions with Bebe Neuwirth and in the later part of the movie, Sigourney Weaver show real confidence and a true gift for comedic farce and all tender moments of young innocence.

With a sharp, funny and tender script, Tadpole is low budget, character driven cinema at its best. Even at a very short 78 minutes and the fact that it is shot in digital video, there is a lot more to enjoy about this movie that many of the more lavish studio productions.

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2003