Critic's Grade: B+

Frank's film tip: Wanting some motherly affection takes on a whole new meaning in the welcoming coming-of-age film "Tadpole"
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It's easy to see why "Tadpole" resonates with the pulsating stride of a wicked coming-of-age tale. Maybe that's because it has the pedigree of an instant classic such as "The Graduate" and the resounding reminiscence of Wes Anderson's 1998 charmer "Rushmore". Whatever the sentiment, director Gary Winick's "Tadpole" is a winning light-hearted romantic comedy with an appealing, mature edginess.

Granted, the notion of hormonal young men lusting after their older female targets has been explored in the movies countless times before. And the Oedipus complex theme, despite its tabooish subject matter, has also been vastly portrayed on the big screen. The familiar premise withstanding, Winick does an exceptional job in the way he takes his youthful 15-year-old protagonist Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) and tangles him in an awkward web of wayward passion for his kind-hearted and shapely stepmother Eve (Sigourney Weaver) only to hook him into the arms of his stepmom's flirtatious single best friend Diane (Bebe Neuwirth).

Oscar is not your average "American Pie" teen-with-a-horny-ticker. No siree. In fact, he's a privileged Manhattan youth who's refined, sophisticated, well-spoken and appreciates the finer points in the elegance of a woman. As Oscar returns home for the Thanksgiving holiday, he contemplates the chance of hanging up under the desirable Eve, a medical researcher who is married to Oscar's clueless university professor father (John Ritter). Oscar generously shares his lusty feelings about his delicious-looking stepmother with his buddy (Robert Iler from the HBO mob drama "The Sopranos").

Soon, Oscar's bizarre crush on the sensual Eve is transferred to her loosey-goosey best girlfriend Diane, a chiropractor who is willing to use her skilled hands professionally and personally, particularly on younger high school studs whom she has the throbbing preference for. One might actually understand fortysomething Diane's need to play footsies with hunky high schoolers, especially when her middle-aged uninvolving suitor (Adam Lefevre) arrives on the scene. What the boring boyfriend lacks in thrills are certainly compensated for by the energy of Oscar's youthful presence. And so the intimate entanglement between Oscar and Diane only serve as a convenient, therapuetic arrangement. For Oscar, Diane is the next best thing to imagining his forbidden romance with daddy dearest's treasured wife. Meanwhile, Diane will gladly tumble in the sheets with Oscar as a way of escaping her loveless predicament; Oscar is the closest fantasy that she can engage in while using this quick fix kissy-kissy routine as temporary patchwork for her empty lovelorn heart.

Winick ("The Tic Code") and screenwriters Niels Mueller and Heather McGowan carry this comedy with a well-intentioned exuberance that's quite breezy and gleefully impish. Although "Tadpole" won't make anyone forget the previously off-kilter exploration of wild May-December romances through quirky films of the past, this vehicle is still a worthy component that delightfully captures the warped woes of growing pains within everybody's needy soul. Much like its contemporary cousin "Rushmore", Winick's film probes into the psychological angst in an attempt to bring an understanding to the personal politics of one young man's quest to satify his emotional and physical urges. True, "Tadpole" doesn't have the easy-flowing complexity or the instantaneous ideology behind its convictions much like "Rushmore", but it's geared in that tradition.

The cast is simply terrific and they help roll this storyline to its intended completion. Stanford brings an inquisitive richness to his role as the Benjamin Braddock-ish Oscar Grubman, a compelling study of boy-to-manhood and all its uneasy discoveries. Both Weaver and Neuwirth bring a much-needed vibrancy to their alter egos and help support the legitimate notion that cinematic mature women over age 40 can be the dominant force behind the sexual appetites of impressionable males of all ages. Besides, what young guy hasn't thought about the intimate details concerning the urges for their pretty fifth grade teacher or an attractive friend of their parents, etc.? In terms of being hot for your mother--biological or otherwise--well, that's another story in itself...

"Tadpole" has the right ritzy urban atmosphere to play off the risible spark of its ribald albeit one-note triangular lovefest as New York City provides the landscape for all the masterful merry-go-round of mischief taking place. The titular reference for the movie is Oscar Grubman's nickname and for good reason. However, what perverse joy it would be to see our hormonal hero graduate to that of confident hungry shark.

Frank rates this film: *** stars (out of 4 stars)

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