 Tadpole (2002) Oscar, played by Aaron Stanford, is one of those totally fake movie creations – teenagers wise beyond their years, with vast knowledge of everything from poetry to philosophy to wine. He's so classy, he only likes old chicks, particularly those married to his father, particularly Sigourney Weaver. Bebe Neuwirth plays Weaver's best friend, an overage hedonist who ends up sleeping with Oscar, sort of accidentally. The film veers wildly between clever and asinine, and owes pretty much everything – upscale New York locations and obscure literary references – to Woody Allen. Think boring parts of Hannah and Her Sisters combined with weary portions of Anything Else. Oscar's kind of the anti-Max Fischer: all pretension and no play. Stanford almost succeeds at making Oscar believable, but he's so obviously in his mid 20s, and the role so ridiculously over the top, it's a lose-lose situation. No one in the film has any sense of humor, so all of the comedy plays against the characters, which kind of makes this a grim, unpleasant slog. Tadpole does have a sweet center, like a bitter rum candy with caramel in it. Most of that is provided by John Ritter, a huge relief as Oscar's father. Ritter plays a clueless scholar trying to establish a semi-adult relationship with his son based on some very weak liberalisms. For instance, when he finds out that Neuwirth seduced his 15 year-old kid, he makes a lame and amusing stab at seeming with-it, despite clearly being uncomfortable, by explaining how ancient Greeks often took 13 year-old brides. It's such a sincere shame that Ritter never had a chance to truly shine as an actor, because even a relatively cardboard role like this hints at what could have been eventual greatness on the level that Bill Murray is starting to achieve. The other actors are wildly uneven. Neuwirth is very cute but brings little depth to a role that should offer some melancholy. Weaver starts exceptionally boring, and ends exceptionally snoring … prompting an internal review of her previous work, with the final verdict that she's really not a very good actress after all. Robert Iler of "The Sopranos" is downright terrible as Oscar's unlikely best friend, a stereotypical girl-crazy teenager probably stuck in the film simply to contrast Oscar. Tadpole really isn't worth your time, or any more of mine for that matter. It can pretty much be summed up in one word: precious, in the unpleasantly saccharine sense.
Review by Crimedog |