December Boys

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December Boys
Directed by	Rod Hardy
Produced by	Richard Becker
Written by	Michael Noonan Marc Rosenberg
Starring	Daniel Radcliffe Jack Thompson Victoria Hill Teresa Palmer
Distributed by	Warner Independent
Release date(s)	September 20, 2007 September 14 - October 12, 2007
Running time	105 min.
Language	English
Budget	$4,000,000
Official website
IMDb profile

December Boys is a 2007 Australian film directed by Rod Hardy and written by Marc Rosenberg and adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Noonan. It was released in the United States on September 14, 2007 and in Australia on September 20, 2007. It is rated PG in Australia and PG-13 in the United States.^[1]

Contents 1 Cast 2 Plot summary 3 Film location 4 Differences from the book 5 Critical reception 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Daniel Radcliffe	Maps
Lee Cormie	Misty
Christian Byers	Spark
James Fraser	Spit
Jack Thompson	Bandy McAnsh
Teresa Palmer	Lucy
Sullivan Stapleton	Fearless
Victoria Hill	Teresa
Kris McQuade	Mrs. McAnsh
Ralph Cotterill	Shellback
Frank Gallacher	Father Scully

[edit] Plot summary

This film is a coming of age picture for the five main characters, and how their lives can change over one holiday. The movie is set in 1960s Australia. Four orphan boys from a Roman Catholic orphanage in the outback of Australia were all born in the month of December, and for their birthday, they are sent on a holiday in the beach to stay with Mr. and Mrs. McAnsh. While there, they meet Fearless, a man who claims that he is the risk motorbike rider in the nearby carnival, and his wife, Teresa. Misty, Spark and Spit instantly become closer to Teresa, but Maps, the eldest of the four, is still reluctant to talk to her. He instead finds more fun in spending time with a teenaged girl named Lucy, who had come to the beach to stay with her uncle. He often goes up to a place with strange rocks, and meets her there, A few days later, the orphans peek through a window in Fearless' house to see Teresa undressing, but Misty, being the most religious of the four, throws a rock at the wall to make them go away. Misty runs back to Mr. McAnsh's house, and looks through the small opening of a door to see someone in the shower, only to find that it is the sickly body of Mrs. McAnsh. They soon realize that she has cancer.

One night, Misty accidentally overhears Fearless talking to his friends about the possibility of adopting one of the orphans. Excited about the opportunity to finally have parents, he keeps it to himself until he decides to reveal it to a priest who has driven to the beach for the orphans' confessions. The other boys realize that he is taking too long, and once he is finished, they force it out of him. Misty, Spark and Spit are eager to compete for the love of the seemingly perfect Fearless and Teresa, but Maps is less than excited, even saying to Lucy, "What's the big deal about parents, anyways?" Maps experiences his first kiss with Lucy, and soon loses his virginity to her in one of the caves of the Remarkable Rocks.

There, she tells him to promise that he'll always remember her as his first. The next day, he goes up again to the Remarkable Rocks, only to realize that Lucy is not there. Her uncle tells him that she's left the beach to return to her father, and will not be back until next summer. Heartbroken, he goes to the carnival to find Fearless and talk to him, but discovers that he is not a motorbike rider there, and instead cleans up after the animals. Furious that he'd lied all along, he finds a painting made by Misty of him as the son of Fearless and Teresa, and destroys it. Misty attacks him and hits him with the fragments of the frame he'd put the painting in, and the bond between the four orphans is broken.

Fearless finds Maps in the cave of the Remarkable Rocks, and explains to him what had really happened. It is revealed to the audience that Fearless was formerly a bike rider, and did all of the stunts with Teresa riding in the back. Soon, there was an accident that kept Teresa in the hospital for nearly a year, making her unable to have babies. That was the reason why they had wanted to adopt one of the orphans.

Maps returns to the beach and finds out from Spark and Spit that Misty had gone into the water, and was drowning in the deep part. Maps goes after him despite the fact that he cannot swim. Both he and Misty nearly drown, but underwater, they open their eyes to see a vision of the Virgin Mary, possibly meaning that they are dying. Before Misty can reach out to it, the two boys are grabbed by Fearless and brought back to the shore. Maps and Misty reconcile with each other, the four are friends again.

The next day, the boys are called to Fearless' and Teresa's house for an announcement they have to make. There, they reveal that they are going to adopt Misty. He tells his friends goodbye, and he watches on the front porch with Fearless and Teresa as the three orphans leave and begin playing on some of the rocks. Misty realizes that they were his true family all along, and asks Fearless and Teresa if he can stay with them instead. They accept, and he goes back home with the orphans.

Several decades later, Misty, as an adult, drives to that same beach with Spark and Spit, along with the ashes of Maps, who had died. They let the ashes loose in the wind, remembering their time here.

[edit] Film location

Much of the film was shot on Kangaroo Island which is off the coast of South Australia.^[1] The film shows no sea travel though so the location is not specified.

The Remarkable Rocks in the Flinders Chase National Park provide a setting for some scenes.

The cove was shot at a number of places. "The script called for a Cove where the film is set that was beautiful, but also desolate. Coves aren’t that easy to find but the one at Kangaroo Island was perfect. It sits directly west so the sun sets between the headlands and gives it a magical feeling." The crew "also filmed at The Remarkables, at Admiral’s Arch and at Second Valley. So it’s a compilation of locations that blend together to form the imaginary Cove."^[1]

[edit] Differences from the book

Points of difference[2]	Book[3]	Film
Setting	East coast of Australia in the 1930s after the Great Depression in Australia and before the outbreak of World War II	The film was shot on Kangaroo Island but was set on an unspecified part of the Australian mainland coast in the 1960s
Orphanage	called St Roderick's	called St Gregory's
Characters: Orphans	There are five orphans in the book: Spark, Maps, Fido, Misty and Choker (the narrator). None of the characters in the book smoke. The time frame sticks to the one period of the summer - that is the boys are not shown as adults. Maps is "the sharpest in looks and ways" but is not significantly older or bigger than the others Misty - has only one eye Spark aspires to be an auctioneer and is "ginger and well-freckled" Fido is the smallest. He catches Henry the fish. Choker, the narrator, is the one who overhears the conversation about adoption. He uses a found picture frame to dream through.[4]	There are four orphans: Maps, Sparks, Spit, Misty (often the story is told from Misty's point of view) Maps - is significantly older than the others Spark - "is the real fun loving guy of the four. He looks at all the lingerie ads, he smokes, he’s out there looking for fun."[1] He catches Henry. Spit - is "a character who loves himself and thinks that the sun doesn’t rise without his permission! Maps is his idol though: he sees him as a parental figure."[1] Misty - "Misty is the youngest, but he’s the most mature. He’s the one that says ‘don’t do that, don’t do this’, and he makes his hair nice and tucks his shirt in."[1] He is the boy who overhears the conversation about adoption. He has freckles and glasses but apparently has sight in both eyes. He uses the picture frame to imagine things. The boys are also shown as adults remembering that summer holiday together.
Mr and Mrs McAnsh	The visit of the children was paid for by Lady Hodge who paid for their fares and food.[5] The McAnsh are looking after the children and are partial to drink. Mrs McAnsh had worked as a bar maid. Mr McAnsh had been the late Sir Henry Hodge's groom in the first world war and later gardener for the Hodges.[6] Mrs McAnsh retains her health throughout the book.	a retired Chief Petty Officer and his wife. The McAnsh's are the sponsors of the holiday, paying for the children to come and looking after them. Mrs McAnsh falls ill.
Fearless and Teresa	Teresa runs the local shop. She is notable to the children for doing cartwheels and applying lotion to them to protect them from sunburn.[7] Fearless is the head of a gang working on a city underground railroad tunnel. On the weekends he is the beltman of the local life saving team.[8] Fearless and Teresa do not offer to adopt any of the children.[9]	Fearless works at the circus. Fearless and Teresa offer to adopt one of the children.
Socrates	is a grey horse who kills fish to feed a family of wild cats.[10]	is dark brown; cats are not shown. Several reviewers found the inclusion in the film of the wild stallion as a less than successful overtly literary element.[11]
Lucy	Lucy does not appear in the book nor do any of the events associated with her	A beautiful girl from down the coast with whom Maps has a relationship
Motorbike	Red Indian [12]	Triumph
Music	In the book a character, Fingers Galore, plays the piano - mainly classical works but also Rule, Britannia! and Painting the Clouds with Sunshine, a song from the 1929 film Gold Diggers of Broadway. Also mentioned is another song from that film: Tiptoe Through the Tulips.	The film features popular music from the 1960s and 70s including Who'll Stop the Rain?

[edit] Critical reception

As of September 15, 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 47% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 36 reviews.^[13] As at 15 October Rotten Tomatoes recorded 60 reviews with 42% favourable and an average rating of 5/10.^[14] As at 15 October, the Metacritic score was 56/100 based on 21 reviews.^[15] In Australia several newspapers remarked that December Boys was a commercial bomb due to its relatively large distribution and advertisement versus its small box office return.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Daniel Radcliffe and Rod Hardy at the London Premiere on youtube
• December Boys at the Internet Movie Database