Movie Log: Tadpole

It's not often that a movie about a fifteen-year-old in love with his forty-year-old stepmother comes along, and even less often that a movie like that is a pleasant comedy. But that's what Tadpole is.

Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) is coming home from his boarding school for Thanksgiving, and he tells his best friend (as they ride into New York on the train) that he's finally going to pour out his heart to the woman he loves. We somewhat sympathize with him, since that woman is Sigourney Weaver, but she's also married to his father, John Ritter. (We know this, but the friend -- Robert Iler -- doesn't, yet.)

Aaron's stepmother's best friend is a masseuse, Diane, played by Bebe Neuwirth, who becomes closer than he expected over the holiday weekend. And to say any more than that would be to give away the whole of the plot; this movie is all about Aaron and his relationships (with his father and stepmother, with his friend and with Diane). He's a bit too poised and knowledgeable to be completely believable as a fifteen-year-old, but his hormones (and the unlikely avenues they've dragged him down) are completely realistic.

The Wife and I watched this the evening after Thanksgiving, in a fit of unlikely synchronicity; we had no idea that it took place at that time of year. It's shot on video and occasionally shows it -- this is clearly a film without much of a budget -- but it's funny and true, in its own odd way. Given the subject matter, it has an amazingly light touch and never drops into melodrama on the one side or pure farce on the other (though one scene in a restaurant comes close).