December Boys

Australia in the fifties. Four boys in a Catholic orphanage were all born in December, so they celebrate their birthdays together. One summer they are sent to stay with a family on the coast. There they hear that a childless couple wants to adopt, and can take only one of them. All four love each other and become each other's rivals at the same moment. Rod Hardy directs. Daniel Radcliffe plays Maps, the eldest. Radcliffe made this while the Harry Potter series was still running, and it was his first film outside it. Taking a part in a small Australian production was a deliberate choice. The subject is what the hope of being adopted does to children. Nobody behaves badly; all four simply want to be chosen, and the wish corrodes the friendship from inside. The coastal landscape is the second element. It was shot on the South Australian coast, and the place is used as the first life these boys have seen outside the orphanage. The source is Michael Noonan's novel. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet period drama and films built on childhood. Who it is not for: the pace is very slow, the narrative is loose, and the emotional effect is forced in the final section.