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December Boys
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
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  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    Tasteful and gorgeously photographed coming-of-age story.
  2. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    75
    This charming tale of a quartet of Australian orphans who share a life-altering holiday in the 1960s should appeal to sentimental adults old enough to wax nostalgic over their own adolescences.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    The film's dramatic moments are small but exquisitely rendered so that you feel the emotions experienced so many years ago. The film lingers afterward in your mind like a favorite vacation that triggered moments of sheer intensity.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Crust
    70
    A refreshingly gentle treatment of familiar themes such as the inevitability of change, the dashing of youthful illusions and mutability of family. Enhanced by an exotic locale, the movie overcomes a well-trodden narrative path and unflinchingly brandishes its sentimentality as it stakes out its crowd-pleasing territory.
  5. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Joshua Katzman
    70
    Though familiar as an old shoe, this is straightforward and well told.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    The filmmakers can't decide whether to trust the period innocence of the book (and play down their casting coup) or let the young man rip as a preteen-babe magnet... So December Boys splits the difference -- safely, dully.
  7. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    67
    The film sort of loses its touch when it gets "dramatic" toward the end -- it's the type of flick where the sky gets overcast when everyone is sad -- but it's hard to argue with the movie's general good spirits.
  8. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    67
    For much of its duration, December is poignantly bittersweet, but the closing sugar rush washes its pleasing ambiguities away.
  9. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    The movie is mildly notorious for a (relatively chaste) scene in which Radcliffe's character loses his virginity. But if you're looking to watch this former child star grownup, track down his classic guest turn on TV's "Extras" instead.
  10. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    The movie would pour nicely onto a thick stack of pancakes.
  11. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    A problematic memory play, shot through with honey-colored nostalgia, that backs nervously into darker matters.
  12. Empire
    Reviewed by: William Thomas
    60
    More Sunday afternoon filler than cinema sensation, it's a perfectly pleasant drama, but you'll struggle to remember it the next day.
  13. Variety
    Reviewed by: Russell Edwards
    60
    Occasionally touching but rarely convincing coming-of-ager.
  14. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    There seem to be two movies going on here at the same time, and December Boys would have been better off going all the way with one of them.
  15. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Sid Smith
    50
    Juvenile viewers may well benefit from the movie. But, for the adult, it's ultimately a film that arrives too early for the season in its title and too late in terms of style and impact.
  16. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: David Wiegand
    50
    Oversaturated with sweetness and light.
  17. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    Pleasant but pedestrian.
  18. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Andy Spletzer
    50
    Bland and completely uninspiring.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    50
    Radcliffe is good at showing vulnerability but without the skills to give it gradation. The magic doesn't work for him this time.
  20. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    40
    If Daniel Radcliffe is hoping for an acting life after Harry Potter, he might want to be choosier than this cloying little Australian number.
  21. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Jeannette Catsoulis
    40
    A coming-of-age tale so treacly it doesn't just tug your heartstrings, it attempts to glue them to your ribs.
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. jimmytancredi
    6
    I spent the movie with a feeling that something would happen that impact, and it did. I was surprised, especially with the furl of the story. I cried of course, with the relation of friendship that was established through the brothers during the film. Definitely I could see the lyricism and depth that the film suggests. Outside the tremendous opportunity to put Radcliffe highlighted, and the film is all of the little boy Misty, who's there at the bottom of the poster. I really enjoyed... shows the importance of friendship, being given to family when we oportunide of having it. A star for the landscape, found it was fabulous. A star for the performance of Dan, I appreciated a lot. A star for the decision at the end of Sparks. It was very meaningful. A star for the end of the movie, thought it was beautiful.… Full Review »
  2. JamesC.
    2
    Harry Plodder is a better name for this dud. Yes, the scenery is great but the script is beyond lazy. Why Daniel R. would pick this film to be in is beyond me. The director uses metaphors like a sledgehammer. If I saw the black horse in the film for another second I would have guessed it was a KT Turnstall video. This film should be in the dictionary under, misfire.… Full Review »
  3. StaceyM.
    7
    Gentle and pleasing movie.
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