It lacks the lushly romantic sensibility that made Woody Allen's similarly themed (and unfortunately prophetic) Manhattan seem plausible.
Comment
08/23/02
Tadpole (2002)
78
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:104
Fresh:81
Rotten:23
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: Slight, but good-natured and witty.
Runtime: 77 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Chauncey Prep student Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) feels that girls his own age haven't lived enough, which is why he's coming home to Manhattan's Upper East Side for... [More]
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Aaron Stanford, Bebe Neuwirth, John Ritter
Director: Gary Winick
Reviews for Tadpole
While this is no Harold and Maude -- one of the best films about an older woman and younger man -- Tadpole has an irresistible charm.
08/23/02
Short and sweet, but also more than anything else slight… Tadpole pulls back from the consequences of its own actions and revelations.
08/22/02
A small, charming indie.
08/22/02
Its direction, its script, and Weaver's performance as a vaguely discontented woman of substance make for a mildly entertaining 77 minutes, if that's what you're in the mood for.
08/22/02
In every respect, director Gary Winick has served up a delectable, entertaining film.
08/21/02
Top CriticIt has little teen humour, with the majority of the cast unlikely to see 40 again, and there is not enough plot substance to constitute an incentive for the older crowd.
08/20/02
The terrific performances of Weaver and Neuwirth notwithstanding, little of this is very amusing. And it doesn't help that the film is visually offensive.
08/16/02
This particular Tadpole grows into neither a frog nor a prince.
08/16/02
Do we really need a 77-minute film to tell us exactly why a romantic relationship between a 15-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman doesn’t work?
08/14/02
[An] hilarious romantic comedy.
08/10/02
A delightful coming-of-age story.
08/09/02
The players are clearly having a ball, never grasping for laughs but rather generating them through a keen sense of their characters.
08/09/02
Tadpole may be one of the most appealing movies ever made about an otherwise appalling, and downright creepy, subject -- a teenage boy in love with his stepmother.
08/09/02
The Sundance Film Festival has become so buzz-obsessed that fans and producers descend upon Utah each January to ferret out The Next Great Thing. 'Tadpole' was one of the films so declared this year, but it's really more of The Next Pretty Good Thing.
08/09/02
'...a fast-paced seventy-eight minutes, Tadpole unpretentiously entertains and introduces a bright new charismatic star in Aaron Stanford'
08/09/02
Tries too hard to depict its main character as an adult in a boy's body. At times it almost feels like Big or Freaky Friday
08/08/02
Smart and fun, but far more witty than it is wise.
08/05/02
We're to believe that a sullen adolescent, rude and completely self-absorbed, is somehow irresistible to women of all ages just because he reads Voltaire? I mean, come on.
08/05/02
Click to read the article
08/05/02
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