DECEMBER BOYS

Australia, 2007, 105 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Radcliffe, Teresa Palmer, Christian Byers, Lee Cormie, James Fraser, Jack Thompson, Kris Mc Quade, Victoria Hill, Sullivan Stapleton, Ralph Cotterill, Frank Gallacher.
Directed by Rod Hardy.

This is a good, modest film. It has particular interest for Catholic audiences with its theme of orphans in an institution during the 1960s. However, it is positive in its outlook and in its presentation of nuns and clergy.

It is an Australian film, based on a novel by Michael Noonan, a memoir of growing up in a remote orphanage in the desert and a wonderful holiday at the sea for four of the boys. They are the December Boys, because they are the orphans who have a December birthday. And they are the lucky ones who benefit from a gift of a couple for some of the boys to go to their place for the summer holidays and celebrate Christmas.

The story is told in voiceover by the now old Misty, the central boy, who is about ten at the time of the holiday. The boy is played by Lee Cormie, completely convincing. Two of the other boys are eleven or twelve (nicknames Spit and Spark) and there is an older boy, about sixteen, Maps. Curious audiences may want to see the film because Maps is played by Daniel Radcliffe during the break between Harry Potter four and five. He acquits himself well, Australian accent and all. While there are, of course, some Harry Potter reminders, he makes this role his own.

Basically, the film is about friendship, about boys who play together, are mischievous together, but who long to be adopted and experience parental and family love. The opportunity rises during the holiday and the three youngest try their best to be good in order to be chosen. Maps does not want to be adopted.
A young couple who worked in a carnival cannot have children and the boys bond with them.

Maps encounters a young girl who is visiting and has a secret hideaway cave in a cliff. So, this is also a rites of passage story for Maps and his discovery of sexuality and relationships. The meeting has a profound effect on him, bewildering him, especially as he realises the transient nature of so many relationships. However, he is still leader for the boys and has to risk his life in the water when Misty gets into difficulties.

This is even more interesting in view of the information given by the old friends meeting again at the cove decades later about what Maps did with his life.

The old couple (Jack Thompson and Kris McQuade) have a naval background and like things ship-shape. They are also devout. They offer a great Christmas surprise: Father will turn up for confessions! And there is a funny scene where Misty goes to Confession in a gradually hotter and hotter car. Father is a friendly and decent figure. The glimpses of the nuns indicate strictness but not harshness.

The other glimpse is of the Blessed Virgin. There are images of here and she appears in Misty’s imagination. He is a pious boy. However, there is also an apparition, brief and understated, when the two boys are in difficulties in the sea.

This is a well-written script that most audiences would enjoy, a visit to the past which had its difficulties but was not traumatic. Rather, the holiday had a wonderful effect on the boys and bonded them even more closely.

1.An Australian- British co-production? The Australian story? Universal? The 1960s? Relevant to the present?

2.The desert locations, the vast openness? The contrast with the coast, the cove, the waves and the rocks, the cliff? The village settlement on the shore? The musical score?

3.The title, the orphans, their life and style, the December Boys themselves, their birthday in December? The gift, the trip, the bonds between them?

4.Misty and the voice-over, the old man reminiscing? Propelling the narrative forward, the comment on characters, the experience, the hopes? Adoption? The effect of the men gathering at the end, the scattering of the ashes? The strength of the bonds?

5.The orphanage, the nuns, real, in the style of the 1960s? The image of the nun, the habit? Supervision in the dormitory? Stern but kindly? Misty and his imagination, the dreams, the nuns doing cartwheels? The boys, their obedience, disobedience, smoking in the dormitory …?

6.The role of Mary, the images of Mary, her appearances to Misty, his devotion and piety, prayer, the drowning and Misty and Maps seeing Mary? Being saved?

7.The holiday, Father Scully and his driving them to the coast, the excitement, the drive, their mucking around together?

8.Bandy McAnch? and his wife? The welcome, Bandy and his naval background, Skipper and her piety, the importance of confessions before Christmas? Bandy and his friendship, Skipper and her illness, seeming dead? The sadness of the farewell?

9.The boys’ arrival, the room, trying to smoke, exploring, in the town, the other houses, the sheds? The effect of the freedom? The fishing, swimming? Playing? The issue of adoption, their wanting to be adopted? Maps not wanting it? The bike, Fearless and his giving them rides, the carnival, rides on the beach? Their attempts to do the best to be adopted? The clashes amongst themselves? The fishing, Shellback and his upset, the catch, burying the fish?

10.The focus on Misty, the voice-over, his age, piety, well-behaved, Mary, his art, overhearing Fearless and Teresa talking about adoption? His hopes, trying?

11.Spark and Spit, their happy holiday, the fishing, with Fearless, wanting to be adopted?

12.Maps and his age, the leader, relationship with Misty? The smoking, helping the younger boys? The exploration, finding the cave? Meeting Lucy, finding out about her? The effect? Social, going to the cave? The sharing, the talk, the kiss, the sexual encounter? Her disappearance? His being upset, his anger, attacking Fearless and humiliating him, upsetting Misty’s art? The talk, going to the carnival, seeing the truth about Fearless? Thinking that Skipper had died? The truth about Lucy? The drowning, the Blessed Virgin Mary? The farewells?

13.Fearless and Teresa, the horse, the bike-riding, their past, the carnival, the children on the bike on the beach, the issue of adoption, the back-story about being unable to have children after the accident? The Christmas celebration? The decision, telling the boys, choosing Misty – and his changing his mind?

14.The drowning sequence, the effect on each of the boys?

15.The realism of the story, the characters, issues, rites of passage, orphans?

16.The ending, Maps and the story of his becoming a priest, going to Africa? His ashes and their being scattered at the cove?