- Cover of Tadpole
Tadpole is wonderful! It’s about a young boy, Oscar, a genius of 15, cultured, studied, multilingual, who is irresistable to women – like Diane (Bebe Neuwirth). And he’s in love with his stepmother, Eve (Sigourney Weaver). He can also tell all about a woman by examining her hands. I liked the premise right off, and liked the film even more. Most of all, I liked the characters. Except for Oscar’s dad (John Ritter), who I can’t stand in anything. There have been quirky, funny treatments of this subject before. Rushmore comes to mind. But this one doesn’t mock the act of love. The passion here is genuine passion, which makes it all the more interesting. It suggests that depth of passion is a thing not of age but of mind. What I don’t like is the origin of the title; “Tadpoling” is a term (obviously meant to ridicule) the trend of older women having much younger male lovers – usually about 10 years younger. Frankly, this “trend” is merely the result of women having financial and social independence and access to the cultural millieu once dominated by men. In contrast, it has rarely been thought unusual for men to have lovers 10 years their younger.
