December Boys

So.. those close to me know by now that I have a little crush on an 18 year old actor. Yes, he's the actor that played Harry Potter, and he recently filmed a movie right here in Australia, called December Boys. Well.. technically, it was filmed two years ago, but was only released last week. I went to watch it with a girlfriend today. I didn't really have expectations, particularly, of the show. By then I had already watched about 3 different trailers, over and over and over again, when they're played during interviews with Daniel Radcliffe. He said in many interviews that although a large portion of the audience will watch the show because they associate him with Harry Potter, they will realize after the first 20 minutes of the show that it's not about HIM at all.

And he was right. Not to say that I watched it solely because of him... the synopsis in the film was charming in its simplicity. What I wasn't expecting was to be completely taken in by the film. Set right here in Australia, the story is about 4 orphans who've grown up in a Catholic orphanage in the Australian outback. Due to a generous contribution by an anonymous benefactor, the orphanage sends these 4 boys for a holiday in the coast as a birthday present (they were all born in December, hence the title of the film). While at the coast, they meet a couple who decide to adopt one of them before the month is out.

It may never be a blockbuster film. It may never win an Oscar, or earn a hundred million trillion dollars at the blockbuster. And yet... by the end of the film, I was bawling my eyes out, and Kim can testify to that. The isolation of the set, with nothing but rocks, sea and sand.. seemed to magnify the emotions these boys were feeling. Their hopes, their dreams, their yearning to be adopted, for family.. and the fracture in their relationships with each other when they start to compete for a couple's affections. The beautiful music woven into the film, that seems to reach right into your heart and expand inside of you.. music that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed outside of the film. And the choice that one boy makes, when he realizes that he already has family in his three 'brothers'. The journey that each boy takes as they realize that family is more than having someone to call 'father' and 'mother.' Family is when you put aside your own hopes and dreams to be happy for your brother.

Even now, back at home, I think of those final few scenes.. where the boys are told which one of them had been chosen.. and you can see their emotions plays across their faces.. elation on the chosen boy's face... but on the other two boys'.. you see their disappointment and their internal struggle against envy and anger... with love winning out, when they find within them the strength to be happy for their 'brother'. And finally, when the chosen boy stands with his new parents, watching his friends walk away, watching them play in the sand, messing around with each other... and he realizes that he already has family. Even now, back at home, thinking about those few scenes, my eyes tear up.

That's what films are about. The cinemas now are filled with spectacles of special effects, gorgeous women, big names, handsome men.. but at the end of the film, when the lights come back on, if you can't remember the film, if it doesn't evoke the same emotions and feelings that you felt in the darkened cinema when the projector was rolling... then it's really just that... a spectacle.

So, good job, Rod Hardy. Kudos, Daniel, for having the maturity to understand that acting isn't about the money or publicity.