Daniel Radcliffe, star of the Harry Potter fantasies, may be the only reason to watch this sentimental and cliche-ridden drama about a group of orphans who get to spend their Christmas vacation by the Australian seaside. Playing one of the orphans, Daniel radiates a calm and quiet confidence that makes him far more likeable than the other orphans who range from the dumb to the downright annoying.

When the orphans are told that one of them may be adopted by a childless couple living there, they get excited and start competing for the couple's attention. Only Daniel is indifferent; he has his sights set on a pretty local girl (Teresa Palmer) with a cliff-top hideaway...

Directed by Rod Hardy and adapted from a Michael Noonan novel, December Boys suffers from an all-too traditional storyline that holds absolutely no surprises for the savvy audience of today. This nostalgia-driven melodrama may be fine as a TV movie-of-the-week on the Hallmark channel, but it is just too small for the big screen.