A Review of December Boys

Breaking away from the iconic role of Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe portrays Maps, an orphan and leader of a small group of boys (Spit, Spark, and Misty) known as the “December Boys.”

Set in a rural, seaside village in Australia, Maps is faced with his first love (and subsequent, heartbreak) and the disintegration of the only family he has ever known.

The December Boys (so named for sharing a birth month) are sent from their orphanage to the seaside village for holidays, it is there where they learn that a village couple will adopt one of them. The family that they once were, quickly turn on each other and what could only have been called love turns into animosity.

While Spit, Spark, and Misty make all attempts to be the boy adopted, Maps meets a young girl, Lucy, and falls in love. It is his first love and first sexual experience that leads to his first heartbreak, and sets the course of his life.

Laced with religious imagery and themes, December Boys illustrates the value of one’s beliefs and how they shape our actions and experiences as we stumble through life.

It is a story of familial love enduring through life’s turmoil and strife, and of entering a new stage in one’s life. The December Boys is a vision of the poignant transition in life and the struggles one faces in such transitions.

It is also a tale of life’s special moments and how they come to us so suddenly, leaving us with experiences and memories that change us forever.

A pleasant tale of coming of age and life’s many changes; a cinematic classic and marvelous transition for Daniel Radcliffe.

~ by jessolwen on January 16, 2008.