December Boys **1/2

Heartfelt and icky-sweet,

December Boys

is a glistening period piece (the early '70s - although it looks more like the late '50s) about four orphans on an idyllic getaway to the Australian coast. They ogle a topless French woman, scamper on the dunes and compete for the attention of a childless couple.

And Daniel Radcliffe loses his Harry Potter wire-rims, gains an Aussie accent, and assumes an awkward gait as Maps, the oldest of the quartet - a brooding teen resigned to the fact that he'll never have parents. Brooding, that is, until he meets the impossibly pretty Lucy (Teresa Palmer), a sunny blond who is happy to help him with his first kiss, and much more.

Directed by Rod Hardy, a veteran of episodic TV, December Boys makes the most of its gorgeous Southern Australian locales - otherworldly rock formations jutting from high cliffs overlooking crystalline seas, and so on. Maps and his crew - bespectacled pipsqueak Misty (Lee Cormie), Spark (Christian Byers) and Spit (James Fraser) - clamber about, frolic in the cove, and then return to share meals with their hosts, a retired, rigorously devout husband and wife.

With a gummy, nostalgic narration (courtesy of a much older Misty), December Boys is about friendship and family, about growing up and holding on to special memories. Flirting timidly with magical realism (visions of the Virgin Mary, of cartwheeling nuns back at the orphanage) and piling on the sappy music, the movie would pour nicely onto a thick stack of pancakes.

With Daniel Radcliffe, Teresa Palmer, Christian Byers and Jack Thompson. Distributed by Warner Independent Pictures. 1 hour, 45 mins. PG-13 (nudity, sex, adult themes). Playing at Ritz East.