December Boys

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Tasteful and gorgeously photographed coming-of-age story.

TV Guide Ken Fox

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

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.

Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman

Though familiar as an old shoe, this is straightforward and well told.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

For much of its duration, December is poignantly bittersweet, but the closing sugar rush washes its pleasing ambiguities away.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The movie would pour nicely onto a thick stack of pancakes.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A problematic memory play, shot through with honey-colored nostalgia, that backs nervously into darker matters.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

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.

Variety Russell Edwards

Occasionally touching but rarely convincing coming-of-ager.

Empire William Thomas

More Sunday afternoon filler than cinema sensation, it’s a perfectly pleasant drama, but you’ll struggle to remember it the next day.

Chicago Tribune Sid Smith

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Radcliffe is good at showing vulnerability but without the skills to give it gradation. The magic doesn't work for him this time.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand

Oversaturated with sweetness and light.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Pleasant but pedestrian.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer

Bland and completely uninspiring.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

If Daniel Radcliffe is hoping for an acting life after Harry Potter, he might want to be choosier than this cloying little Australian number.

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

A coming-of-age tale so treacly it doesn’t just tug your heartstrings, it attempts to glue them to your ribs.