"Tadpole" is a poignant tale of a 15-year-old French student, Oscar who falls in love with his stepmother. He doesn't like girls of his own age because they are shallow, and on the course of this complex sexual preference of his, he sleeps with the sensual forty-something friend of his stepmother too. Aaron Stanford is quite good as the lead character. He nicely captures Oscar's apparent innocence mixed with strong desire for older women. Whereas Sigourney Weaver is surprisingly flat and unimpressive as the stepmother. Perhaps she was not a good choice for the role too. I would have preferred Meg Ryan. However, Bebe Neuwirth is brilliant as her friend Diane who has a sexual interest on Oscar. She is fluent, natural and funny. John Ritter also gives a good performance as his father.
The film is a low-budget one, shot in about two weeks. And it doesn't get out of that setback. The screenplay is poor. The idea of quoting Voltaire from time to time is disturbing. The music used in the film is poorly chosen (except Paul Simon's "Only living boy in New York" maybe, though I think it's used in wrong place). Fine acting, the freshness of the story and nice location shots of city landscape makes it a fair film to watch.
The film is a low-budget one, shot in about two weeks. And it doesn't get out of that setback. The screenplay is poor. The idea of quoting Voltaire from time to time is disturbing. The music used in the film is poorly chosen (except Paul Simon's "Only living boy in New York" maybe, though I think it's used in wrong place). Fine acting, the freshness of the story and nice location shots of city landscape makes it a fair film to watch.