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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Preppie scores with older chicks, 21 May 2004
I attended a college prep school, but don't remember anything like what happens in the comedy TADPOLE. Perhaps I should have read more of the French philosophers.Aaron Stanford has his debut acting role as Oscar Grubman, a 15-year-old boarding school student returning to his father's NYC home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Oscar's (divorced) mother is French, so he speaks the language and is heavily into French literature, especially Voltaire. Oscar isn't interested in girls his own age, and a peer remarks that Oscar is a 40-year-old trapped in a teenager's body. Oscar carries a heavy weight - he's got a serious crush on his 40-something stepmom, Eve (Sigourney Weaver). Though Oscar has eyes only for Mrs. Grubman, his mental maturity combined with boyish enthusiasm attracts Eve's female friends, who press their phone numbers on him - and more. Eve's best friend, Diane (Bebe Neuwirth), seduces him one evening after finding him wandering drunk and lovesick (for Eve) on the street. The morning after, Oscar is horrified. This was Stanford's first role after graduating from Rutgers University where he studied theater. Simply put, he's terrific. Neuwirth is positively delicious as the mischievous Diane who toys with the lad as a cat with a mouse. (Any teenage boy should be so lucky!) There's one scene after Oscar's one-night tryst where Oscar, Diane, Eve, and Oscar's father Stanley (John Ritter) go out to a restaurant dinner, and which had the audience almost rolling in the aisles. It alone was worth the price of admission. Sigourney Weaver is radiant as the unsuspecting Eve, and one can understand why Oscar is attracted. I know I was. John Ritter does well enough as Oscar's college professor father, though my opinion is undoubtedly unfairly skewed towards the negative by the fact that I've never gotten over the actor's relentlessly obnoxious character in television's THREE'S COMPANY. TADPOLE is short at 77 minutes, and I was left slightly dissatisfied as the film rolled into the credits after what I thought was a too abrupt ending. Perhaps it's because the Diane/Oscar relationship was so richly humorous and fraught with awkward possibilities, and I wanted more of it. However, that said, this is a delightful worth seeing.
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