Review of Tadpole

Tadpole (2002)
7/10
Fairly charming coming of age story.
15 March 2016
15 year old Oscar Grubman (played by 25 year old Aaron Stanford) definitely has the soul of someone much older - but not the wisdom. He has no romantic time for girls his own age - he actually prefers women, for their maturity and experience. In fact, he has a crush on his worldly stepmother Eve (Sigourney Weaver), whom he idealizes. In an amusing farcical turn of events, he sleeps with Eves' friend Diane (Bebe Neuwirth, who's never looked sexier).

This is a reasonably funny, lightly entertaining comedy about a young man with lots of book smarts and an endearing amount of naivety which is precisely what some people find intriguing about him. Stanford is just right in the lead role, even if he's clearly older than what he's playing. Neuwirth is irresistible as the saucy older woman (just imagine the trouble the character would be in in real life, though!). John Ritter is good as always playing Oscars' somewhat pretentious dad. And Weaver is appealing as the object of our young hero's misguided affection.

One thing that's rather refreshing about "Tadpole" is that it only runs 79 minutes. It's nice to see a modern movie that doesn't meander and wraps up its story in such a trim fashion.

Definitely worth seeing for admirers of the cast.

Seven out of 10.
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