misty

it wasn't exactly a great film. simple storytelling, no major frills, just pure narrative of a coming-of-age story of 4 friends who were orphaned and fondly called december boys. maps (daniel radcliffe), sparks, spit and misty were luckily given the chance to go on a holiday at a southern australia coast, where they stayed at an elderly couple's house. the boys have all given up hope of being adopted so they practically spent the times there playing, wandering around, discovering new places at that seaside community. maps even met lucy, a vacationing girl who he developed a romantic bond with and actually had his 'first time' with.

december boys' friendship was tested when misty overheard that fearless and teresa, the young couple they got close to is bent on adopting one of them. maps soon discovered that fearless was not really a motorbike driver but instead cleans after the animals in the carnival. maps found out that misty actually drew a family picture with himself as the son of fearless and teresa. maps was furious that fearless lied all along and destroyed the painting, hitting misty along the way. this puts a huge dent in the 4 orphans relationship.

maps returns to the beach and finds out from spark and spit that misty had gone into the water, and was drowning in the deep part. maps goes after him despite the fact that he cannot swim. both he and misty nearly drown, but underwater, they open their eyes to see a vision of the virgin mary, possibly meaning that they are dying. before they can reach out to it, the two boys are grabbed by fearless and brought back to the shore. maps and misty reconcile with each other, the four are friends again.

the next day, the boys are called to fearless' and teresa's house for an announcement they have to make. there, they reveal that they are going to adopt misty. he tells his friends goodbye, and he watches on the front porch with fearless and teresa as the three orphans leave and begin playing on some of the rocks. misty realizes that they were his true family all along, and asks fearless and teresa if he can stay with them instead. they accept, and he goes back home with the orphans.

several decades later, misty, as an old man, drives to that same beach with spark and spit, along with the ashes of maps and lucy's ring that she gave to him, who had died as a priest in africa helping refugees. they let the ashes loose in the wind, remembering their time there.

the film's setting was absolutely gorgeous, providing a visual luxury as backdrop for a somewhat dreary story. what the film wanted to highlight is the constant longing of an individual and how these can be a lifelong journey and can be significantly undermined by unfulfilled hope. in this case, the four orphans' hope of finally getting adopted and to be part of a true family. as one imdb reviewer puts it: rude awakenings and rejection are themes that most people can relate to after hardened years, but for children to already know it intimately at such an age is what makes december boys the thoughtful tearjerker it is.

i look back at my childhood with fascination and wonder that back then, everything was really larger than what it is. similarly, the movie lets us look back at wonderful memories, great adventures and immature fantasies. it was not a great movie, but altogether a watchable and entertaining one.