My only real problem with Tadpole is its length - one hour and eighteen minutes. Neuwirth, in particular, seems the most at home here, coming off extremely sexy and seductive. Ritter, Neuwirth and Weaver all turn in adequate performances. Stanford’s performance, especially in his dream sequences, is confident, appropriately awkward and quite likable. Oscar is described in the film as a “40-year-old man in a 15-year-old body”. I’m not sure I agree with the reasoning behind this film’s choice of subject matter, but if one puts that aside, the film is quite engaging and funny. For some reason, however, it’s okay to have two women involved with an underage male. Had this film been about a 15-year-old girl who has feelings for older men and actually sleeps with one of them, I think there would have been some sort of media backlash. Things are complicated further as Oscar gets drunk before he can tell Eve how he feels and winds up spending the night with Diane (Bebe Neuwirth), Eve’s best friend, who is also much older than he. She is also Oscar’s stepmother, Eve (Sigourney Weaver). The “girl” in question is really a woman who is thirty-some years his senior. Home for Thanksgiving, Oscar has decided to tell the girl he loves how he feels for her. Oscar Grubman (Stanford) is a 15-year-old sophomore at a prestigious private school. Unfortunately, it’s not long enough to adequately deal with the issues it raises. Featuring the unlikely cast of Bebe Neuwirth (TV’s Cheers), John Ritter (TV’s Three’s Company), Sigourney Weaver ( Aliens) and newcomer Aaron Stanford, this little film takes on a somewhat controversial subject and handles it with wit, charm and a substantial dose of humor. Tadpole doesn't exactly go anywhere unique or amazing it just tells this simple story in an equally simple matter.Made for less than $200,000 and shot on digital video, Tadpole doesn’t look like a Hollywood production. As for Weaver and Ritter as Oscar's parents, they're both really good - especially Ritter, sporting a Robin Williams-esque beard, as the befuddled dad. Neuwirth, as the older woman who sleeps with Oscar, easily sheds her Lilith persona from Cheers and perfectly embodies this tenacious character without ever taking it over-the-top. Still, he's undeniably a good actor and infuses the character with a combination of innocence and world-weary cynicism (this is a kid, after all, who reads Voltaire in his spare time).Īmong the supporting cast, it's the trio of adults that make the biggest impact (Weaver, Bebe Neuwirth, John Ritter). And since he's been paired with Iler, an actor who genuinely looks like a young teen, the fact that he's in his 20s sticks out like a sore thumb. However, his talent does not afford him the ability to disguise his true age, which is obviously not 15. Assuming the title role (Tadpole is Oscar's nickname) is newcomer Aaron Stanford, who proves to be an exceedingly talented young actor. It doesn't hurt that the film runs around 75-minutes, a length that prevents the movie from ever overstaying it's welcome.
Tadpole is one of those plotless flicks that manages to squeak by on charm and charisma. Now, Oscar's got to figure out a way to let his mother-in-law know how he feels while also ensuring that she never finds out about his affair. He winds up sidetracked, though, by a brief dalliance with her best friend - a chiropractor with no guilt over the fact that she's just slept with a 15-year-old (she herself is in her 40s). Oscar reveals that he's got a crush on his mother-in-law (Sigourney Weaver), and intends to tell her of his true feelings over the weekend. The film opens with boarding school student Oscar Grubman on his way home for Thanksgiving, accompanied by his best friend (played by Robert Iler). And while they're both pretty distracting for the first third of the film, the likable nature of the movie allows them to finally recede into the background for the duration. Right off the bat, Tadpole's got two elements it has to overcome: It's shot on digital video and it stars a 25-year-old as a teenager.
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