Unlike the MPAA we do not assign
one
inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE
and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest,
depending on quantity and context.
Musical comedy featuring tunes from the '70s group ABBA: A young woman (Amanda Seyfried) preparing for her wedding is determined to discover the identity of her father. So, after reading her mother's (Meryl Streep) diary, she invites the three men (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard) who she thinks are the most likely suspects. Also with Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Dominic Cooper and Juan Pablo Di Pace. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. [1:48]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A young man tries to seduce an older woman: she wraps a towel around his shoulders then moves down off screen and his face suggests that she might be doing something sexual but we see that she had been tying a towel around his waist in the shape of a diaper (there is an extended song and dance sequence where she refuses him and he chases after her). ► A man's bare buttocks are revealed when the towel he wears around his waist does not cover them. A man wears a towel around his waist that reveals his bare chest and abdomen. A woman wears a towel after showering and her bare shoulders, back and legs to the thigh are visible. Women wear low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage, bare backs and shoulders in several scenes. Young women wear short tops that reveal bare abdomens in a couple of scenes. ► Many young women dance around two men while singing and tying them to poles and we see them caressing them and lifting the shirt of one (no sex is implied). A man and a woman kiss in a few scenes. ► Two men take off their shirts and embrace (it is implied that they are lovers). Two men dance together. ► A woman grabs another woman's clothed breasts and says, "Where did you get these?" ► A woman asks two other women, "What do you suggest we do with three men," and one of them replies, "That brings back memories." A woman asks another woman if she is "getting any." A young woman reads pages from her mother's diary that allude to sexual encounters with three men. A man admits to being gay and looks at another man with a romantic expression. Song lyrics about wanting to marry a man with money state, "I'd fool around." A young man talks about going to his "stag party." A young woman tells two friends that she has a surprise and they think she means she's pregnant (she is not). A woman talks about having had several husbands. A woman reads ingredients from a beauty product that include "extract of donkey testicles."
the review continues below...
VIOLENCE/GORE 1 - A woman hangs from a ledge and falls and a man below her catches her (no one is injured). ► The floor of a courtyard cracks and people seem concerned. ► A woman screams when she sees a fish that has a very large mouth with many pointed teeth in a basket.
PROFANITY 3 - A woman says something off-screen that could be a garbled F-word, 3 sexual references, 1 scatological term, 3 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, 10 religious exclamations. [profanity glossary]
SUBSTANCE USE - A woman takes a prescription pill (from the context it is some sort of mood stabilizer). Two women drink champagne, two women drink mixed drinks at a bar, a woman opens a beer bottle with her teeth and drinks from it, and people hold champagne glasses (we do not see them drink). A young man puts an unlit cigar in his mouth a couple of times and confesses that his only vice is smoking (we do not see him smoke).
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Unwed pregnancy, love, dreams, letting go of children, romance, multiple marriage, marriage for love, Catholic guilt, recklessness, promiscuity, knowing yourself, keeping secrets, lying, adventure, serendipity, keeping secrets, homosexuality, regret, passage of time, forgiveness.
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we
started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were
not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many
older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please
keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period.
While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are
limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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