ShareThisTuesday, November 21, 2006
A guide to movies from a family perspective:
"Stranger Than Fiction"
_ Rated: PG-13.
_ Suitable for: Mature tweens and up.
_ What you should know: This is a quirky, smart comedy starring Will Ferrell as an IRS agent who hears a voice in his head narrating his life. That brings him in contact with a literature professor, a suicidal novelist and a baker who brings some sweetness into his life.
_ Language: One f-word and a half-dozen milder curses.
_ Sexual situations and nudity: A man fantasizes about a woman. Men are shown naked, from behind, in a communal shower at a pool. Passionate kisses lead to an off-camera coupling.
_ Violence/scary situations: Lots of vividly imagined deaths and one disturbing accident.
_ Drug and alcohol use: Nothing notable.
"A Good Year"
_ Rated: PG-13.
_ Suitable for: Mature tweens and older moviegoers.
_ What you should know: Russell Crowe is a London investment expert who inherits a small French chateau and vineyard from his late uncle. Settling into the sunny countryside, he begins to reevaluate his way of life and remember how much his uncle and the Provence retreat meant to him.
_ Language: One use of the f-word and roughly a dozen milder curses or words.
_ Sexual situations and nudity: There's a reference to an illegitimate daughter, a naked sunburned back is soothed with ice, and a couple kiss and start to undress. The camera cuts away, but it's obvious they spent the night together.
_ Violence/scary situations: On the very mild side, including a road mishap, diving board accident and scorpions that spook but don't harm.
_ Drug and alcohol use: Wine, cognac and other alcohol are consumed, sometimes to excess.
"Flushed Away"
_ Rated: PG.
_ Suitable for: Preschoolers and older children who can sit through an 86-minute movie.
_ What you should know: This computer-animated movie is about a pampered pet mouse who ends up flushed away to the teeming world below London's streets. There, he meets a feisty rodent named Rita and gets involved with a villainous Toad and others. With the voices of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet and lots of other A-list talent.
_ Language: Some harsh words but nothing that comes close to skirting the PG boundary.
_ Sexual situations and nudity: None.
_ Violence/scary situations: Lots, but it's all cartoonish, including high-speed chases, shots of critters frozen from liquid nitrogen and references to lab experiments with animals gone awry, which likely will go over youngsters' heads.
"Catch a Fire"
_ Rated: PG-13.
_ Suitable for: Mature high-school juniors and older.
_ What you should know: This movie tells the real-life story of Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), an apolitical oil-refinery foreman, family man and soccer coach in 1980s South Africa. All of that changes when he is wrongly accused of a terrorist act, jailed and tortured. Tim Robbins also stars.
_ Language: One use of the f-word and a couple of milder words.
_ Sexual situations and nudity: A man is forced to take off his clothes while being arrested. References to infidelity and an illegitimate child are made.
_ Violence/scary situations: People are shot, sometimes fatally, imprisoned, interrogated and tortured. The movie dramatizes deadly raids, funerals, explosions and the consequences of living under apartheid.
_ Drug and alcohol use: Adults are shown drinking.
"The Queen"
_ Rated: PG-13.
_ Suitable for: Mature tweens and up.
_ What you should know: The days immediately after the death of Princess Diana are dramatized and replayed (through archival TV footage) in this movie starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. She is reluctant to join Prime Minister Tony Blair in a public display of mourning for her former daughter-in-law.
_ Language: One use of the f-word and some milder language.
_ Sexual situations and nudity: None.
_ Violence/scary situations: News clips from the time of Diana's 1997 death from a car accident are threaded throughout and an animal carcass and severed animal head are shown.
_ Drug and alcohol use: Adults reach for alcohol with regularity but no one overindulges.
"Marie Antoinette"
_ Rated: PG-13.
_ Suitable for: Teens and above.
_ What you should know: Sofia Coppola wrote and directed this sympathetic, music-soaked take on the teen royal (Kirsten Dunst).
_ Language: Nothing notable.
_ Sexual situations and nudity: Naked body shown from behind, a flash of breast, talk of an unconsummated marriage, passionate embraces and kisses. Childbirth, a mistress and a lover also factor into the story.
_ Violence/scary situations: A child's death is conveyed through a series of portraits. Angry crowds advance on the castle.
_ Drug and alcohol use: Lots of champagne and wine are consumed.
