Just remember Misty, no matter what, youre still a December boy.

Trailer:


Went to a friend's house and we watched this. Impulsive, but it was absolutely worth it.

There's something inexplicably attractive about Dan Radcliffe - outside the scope and influence of Harry Potter. Though I suppose it'd be hard to take him out of that context for a long time to come. Especially for people like us, who are roughly about his age, give or take a few days older - we practically grew up watching him on the big screen, from the wee, round eyed Harry in The Philosopher's Stone to the lanky, emotional Harry in The Half Blood Prince. The transformation is quite amazing and I suppose in some subtle ways it reflects our own road to growing up. A quiet realization that like Harry, like Dan, we, too are no longer twelve and carefree. We are almost adults - we have responsibilities and things have become different.

Digression aside, I loved his acting in December Boys. For me, this is the first non-Harry Potter film of his I've watched. (Regrettably missing the opportunity to watch Equus.) He plays James in the film, or better addressed as Maps because he has a map of Tanzania shaped on his chest.

December Boys tells the story about four orphans, bounded by their birth month and a strong sense of family bonding who are cast out into the open, under the cerulean skies and breath taking beaches in Australia, where their camaraderie is tried and tested and eventually prevails. Even when one of them gets the opportunity to be adopted, after spending days trying to impress the couple, he leaves the opportunity for a normal home to be with his "brothers". It was a very touching film. Thoroughly enjoyed; might have wept a little if I had been seeing it in private.

One thing I did not enjoy was the religious overtone in the film. I'm not a fan of religious insinuations in films unless they serve, in some ways, to complement the central conflict. In the December Boys, that wasn't the case and at times it felt like a desperate scene filler.