When was december boys filmed

Christian Byers Sparks as Sparks. Jack Thompson Bandy as Bandy. Sullivan Stapleton Fearless as Fearless. Victoria Hill Teresa as Teresa. Max Cullen Narrator as Narrator …. Kris McQuade Mrs. McAnsh as Mrs. Ralph Cotterill Shellback as Shellback. Paul Blackwell Watson as Watson. Rory Walker Father as Father. Suzie Wilks Mother as Mother. Rod Hardy. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit.

An adult nicknamed Misty is narrating a story about one summer in his life when he was an adolescent in the late s. He was living in a Catholic orphanage in the Australian outback. His best mates were the "December boys" - Maps, Spark and Spit - the four of them so named because they were the boys in the orphanage born in the month of December.

With a recent windfall, the orphanage decided to give each of the boys a group vacation for each of their birthdays, the December boys the first to go. McAnsh - Bandy and "Skipper".

Their relatively carefree Christmas vacation took a turn primarily from three events: learning the reason the McAnshes hosted the boys specifically at this time; Maps, the oldest in his mid-teens, exploring his sexuality with a girl named Lucy, who was also visiting Lady Star Cove for the summer; and Misty secretly learning that a young couple in the cove, Fearless and Teresa, were thinking about adopting one of them, the couple who were unable to conceive a child of their own.

Beyond the dreams of especially the younger three to be adopted by a loving family, Fearless had the extra wow factor of being a stunt motorcyclist as his profession. Misty, the youngest, tried the hardest to be the one chosen, even initially keeping the fact of Fearless and Teresa thinking about adopting one of them from the other three.

Misty concludes his story with the reason why he is telling it at this stage in his life. After that summer nothing would ever be the same again. Rated PG for sexual content, nudity, underage drinking and smoking. Did you know Edit. The boys encounter a stallion with a flowing mane that according to legend, catches fish! And being at the sea, there is the resident Old Salt named Shellback who spends his days searching for the fish to end all fish, Henry. Exchanging confidences and feeling closer to her in many respects than with the December Boys, Maps wears his heart on his sleeve as he struggles with the pangs of puberty, a first love, sweet seduction, a loss of innocence and a broken heart.

And as the holiday winds down, the boys, the McAnshes and even Teresa and Fearless, all learn lessons about life, love, death, friendship and hope. Maps is such a different character from Harry. And I wanted to do something that was different. And it was the fact that the stage directions, which are never normally something that stands out in a script, these were written like excerpts from some fabulous novel and these were beautiful to read.

It leapt off the page. Confident, tentative, nervous and unabashedly delightful, he soars with subtly nuanced layers of emotion as he tackles the angst of being a teen.

So put your fears to rest Daniel. His agitation, joy, concern, boyish style. Very intense and determined, he gives Misty a courageous elan. Normally, this is not the type of film that I would find men or boys attracted to, but guys, this is a do not miss for you if only for one reason — Teresa Palmer.

Told through the eyes of Misty, screenwriter Marc Rosenberg captures to a tee the youthful exuberance, the camaraderie, the closeness, the childhood angst, joys and heartaches of the novel. Although deviating somewhat from the storyline with a few film embellishments, he did an excellent job of translating book to screen. Together his right hand Director of Photography Dave Connell, the result is exemplary.

Visual perfection. Fearless Sullivan Stapleton is a daredevil motorcycle rider, and his girlfriend Teresa Victoria Hill is a French babe who has brought topless sunbathing to Australia years ahead of schedule. The other three boys all wag their tails and try to seem adoptable. But Maps has his eye on another prize, a girl named Lucy Teresa Palmer. As they have a flirtation and qualify the movie for Variety 's rewrite of the title, I was so forcibly reminded of another movie that I wished I were seeing it instead.

That would be " Flirting " , where Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor play students at nearby Australian single-sex boarding schools, and create the most tender and realistic love not sex scene I can remember. They set a high mark, which I'm afraid Maps and Lucy do not approach, in a seduction that goes by the numbers, only Lucy counts by twos.

She also gives Maps his first puff on a cigarette. The sight of Harry Potter smoking is a little like Mickey Mouse lighting up, but the period detail is accurate, and Radcliffe is convincing as the young man; he proves he can move beyond the Harry role, which I guess is the objective of this movie, but I am not sure it proves he has star power -- not yet, anyway, unless his co-star, so to speak, is Harry Potter.

Some elements in the film baffle me, one of them being an underwater appearance by the Virgin Mary. I guess we might see such a manifestation in some movies about Catholic orphans, but not one so chockablock with mortal sins. To balance her, there is the earthy wisdom of Father Scully Frank Gallacher , who escorts the lads on their holiday, and gives them sales talks on being adopted, as if they were opposed to the idea.

He knows the good Catholic McAnsh couple and is their friend in need. The movie is based on a novel by Michael Noonan , unread by me, which is described as "young adult fiction" by Amazon. Its young and adult elements fit together awkwardly, however, and it is hard to reconcile the storybook qualities of the first sequences with what the MPAA catalogs as PG rated "sexual content, nudity, underage drinking and smoking," and parents of younger Radcliffe fans will describe as "ohmigod.