Tadpole 2002

I have to admit I have seen this movie more than a dozen times. It was a favorite of mine and a dear friend. Oscar Grubman, a fifteen-year-old student who speaks French and quotes Voltaire, believes that girls of his age have neither lived nor know enough to be interesting. So, when he returns to his home in Manhattan to spend Thanksgiving vacation with his father, who has remarried, he will try to seduce his mature stepmother. The film is set in that Manhattan, a type of New York that Woody Allen has shown us so well. This story is about as close to a contemporary descendant of J. D. Salinger's beloved preppie misfit, Holden Caulfield, as has ever been brought to the screen.

At its most endearing, the film conveys the same intense identification with Oscar's thoughts and mood swings that Mr. Salinger brought to his legendary character, and its adolescent-eyed view of Manhattan's Upper East Side as a glowing, mysterious wonderland is deeply Salinger-esque. This was Aaron Stanford, first his feature-film debut in the movie, Oscar might have emerged as an insufferably pretentious hothouse flower. But the actor (23 when the movie was made) flawlessly captures his character's aching, doe-eyed sincerity and yearning goodness.

Oscar has little tolerance for his fellow teenagers' tastes in pop culture, and on the train into Manhattan, he appears oblivious to the flirtatious signals flashing from an attractive schoolmate (Kate Mara) whom he dismisses as too immature to be girlfriend material because she has “babylike” hands. He also imagines himself a connoisseur of women: older women, to be precise. But that taste proves the source of Oscar's heartache. Of all the older women in the world to covet, the one for whom he has developed a consuming passion is his attractive stepmother, Eve (Sigourney Weaver). A medical researcher whose marriage to Oscar's father, Stanley played by the great comedian, the late John Ritter, an academic, has drifted into stagnation, Eve is beautiful, cultivated, self-possessed and 40-something. And as the camera studies her through Oscar's adoring eyes, you understand exactly why he would prefer her to someone his own age. For one thing, she doesn't have hands like a baby's.

The film's chief pleasures derive from the delicate interactions of Oscar, Eve and Diane (Bebe Neuwirth), a chiropractor who is Eve's mischievously sexy best friend. The core of a story, which suggests a refined French farce about intergenerational sex and lies (but no videotape), this dinner scene full of intrigue and comedy represents the core entire movie, finally we find Oscar sleeping with Diane but feeling terrible about it afterward because he has betrayed his true love.  Bebe Neuwirth, whose leggy, smirking bravado recalls the younger Anjelica Huston, more or less steals the movie. Her portrayal of Diane, a sexy, self-assured single woman with a rebellious streak, gives ''Tadpole'' its erotic snap. Diane's juicy reminiscences of the wild rock 'n' roll adventures she shared with Eve 25 years earlier now make her friend uncomfortable. A critical scene is when Sigourney Weaver, displaying the greatness of her craft, deals with the teenage masturbation; all kinds of emotions go through her head and you can feel them. Within this genre which I consider topped by The Graduate, however I will rank Tadpole in the top five of that list along with Midnight Cowboy, Sunset Boulevard and The 80’s cheesy fun movie “Class”.

''Tadpole” comes from a screenplay by Niels Mueller and Heather McGowan, was an audience favorite when it was shown earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The performances are precise with a sweet and kind Sigourney Weaver in this simple story that is told where the only interruptions are to show some phrases of Voltaire, part of Oscar’s obsessions; true axis of this film. The film's soundtrack includes a version of the Simon and Garfunkel song"The Only Living Boy in New York" interpreted by one of my favorite duo of all times "Everything But The Girl."  

Tadpole won the prize for the best director of a drama at Sundance in 2002, which went to Gary Winick. This movie was shot in just two weeks with a hand-held digital camera and was one of the many that during the eleven days of the festival found a distributor and buyer.

Directed by Gary Winick; written by Niels Mueller and Heather McGowan; director of photography, Hubert Taczanowski; edited by Susan Littenberg; production designer, Anthony Gasparro; produced by Mr. Winick, Dolly Hall and Alexis Alexanian; released by Miramax Films.

Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Eve), Aaron Stanford (Oscar), John Ritter (Stanley), Bebe Neuwirth (Diane) and Robert Iler (Charlie).