Tadpole
Reviews |
Film Comedy. Theatre release July 19, 2002. Video/DVD release January
21, 2003. Miramax.
E FIRST SEE Oscar Grubman (Stanford) on a train traveling from his upstate New York prep
school to Thanksgiving holidays at his father's (Ritter) residence in New York City's Upper
East Side. Oscar is fifteen and he is in love. But he is not an ordinary fifteen-year-old
love-struck American preppie. He spends summers with his mother in France and has absorbed
much of that culture. He is fluent in the language and looks to Voltaire as a guide to life.
His standards are high. He finds American girls shallow. But not American women. So he is
in love with an accomplished, intelligent, and attractive woman. His
stepmother, Eve (Weaver), to be exact. He is not unaware of the potential
for disaster in this situation. Should he tell her? Can he tell her?
And what will happen if he does? The film follows his wobbling and
often hilarious journey to the inevitable confrontation of desire and
reality. We last see Oscar on the train returning to school, somewhat
enlightened and more accepting of his place in the world.
Stanford. . . assumes Oscar's uncommonly intelligent, well-spoken and mature airs with utter ease and credibility and he creates one of the most distinctive young screen characters in recent memory. --Variety