from Film Forum, 08/01/02Here's a sweet little story (irony alert) about a teenager who wants to seduce his stepmother and ends up having a sexual awakening with mom's best friend instead. Tadpole joins a trend of recent movies in which the heroes engage in morally questionable behavior on the road to self-discovery. The film stars Aaron Stanford as the sexually eager 15-year old, and Sigourney Weaver plays the grown, married woman he has targeted for conquest. Bebe Neuwirth plays Diane, another grown woman who is all too willing to give the boy an "education."
Tadpole, according to the USCCB's critic, falls short of portraying sin and consequences in a satisfactory manner. The reviewer asks if this might be the opposite of a 'chick flick'. "Films like Tadpole are rarely given a gender specification. A story such as this one, even when it's played for laughs, nonetheless seems to be courting a male audience, and for all the wrong reasons. One can't shake the feeling that the whole story is some male adolescent fantasy. The actors do a fine job with the limited roles, but the film is artificial in its construction and superficial in its philosophical and moral outlook."
