New films from a family perspective

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"Never Back Down"

-- Rated: PG-13.

-- Suitable for: High-school students and older.

-- What you should know: Sean Faris plays an Iowan who moves to Orlando, Fla., with his widowed mother and younger brother and is drawn into underground fighting and mixed martial arts.

-- Language: Mild four-letter curses sprinkled throughout.

-- Sexual situations and nudity: Teens, including two girls at a wild party, kiss, and girls invariably favor skimpy bikinis.

-- Violence/scary situations: A brawl erupts on a football field, there is a flashback to a fatal drunken-driving accident and talk about a deadly shooting. One boy is beaten so severely that he lands in the hospital (but recovers). Other fights, sanctioned and unsanctioned, are bruising, but no one appears to suffer permanent injury.

-- Drug or alcohol use: An adult father offers a drink to a teen, and there appears to be beer consumed at a raucous teen bash.

"Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"

-- Rated: PG-13.

-- Suitable for: Tweens and above.

-- What you should know: Frances McDormand plays a down-on-her-luck governess in 1939 London who falls into a job as a social secretary for an American actress juggling three men. Amy Adams of "Enchanted" co-stars.

-- Language: Some mild curses.

-- Sexual situations and nudity: A man's naked behind is shown in bed after an apparently lusty night and some innuendo made about his sexual prowess. Women model lingerie and are shown in their underwear.

-- Violence/scary situations: Punches are thrown but no one is seriously injured. Characters talk about friends or loved ones lost in World War I and how they dread the prospect of another war.

-- Drug or alcohol use: Cocktails and champagne flow.

"The Other Boleyn Girl"

-- Rated: PG-13.

-- Suitable for: Mature high school students and above.

-- What you should know: The Philippa Gregory novel about sisters Anne and Mary Boleyn has been turned into a movie starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. The film deals with sexual situations too intense for younger children.

-- Language: A handful of mild curses, mainly "Damn you!"

-- Sexual situations and nudity: Ranges from sisterly confidences about a wedding night to couples shown in steamy bedroom embraces. In one especially disturbing scene, a man forces himself on a woman, and her face registers physical and emotional pain. Women are shown in the throes of childbirth. There is talk (only) of incest.

-- Violence/scary situations: Women are pressed into sexual situations to advance their families. An executioner lops off heads with an ax or sword. You hear that sound and, in one scene, see the bloody body from far above.

-- Drug or alcohol use: Wine is consumed.

"Penelope"

-- Rated: PG.

-- Suitable for: School-age girls, especially tweens, and above.

-- What you should know: In this modern fairy tale, Christina Ricci is a young woman who, thanks to a family curse, was born with the nose and ears of a pig. Her parents hide her away and try to find a suitable match, to break the curse.

-- Language: Nothing notable.

-- Sexual situations and nudity: In keeping with the rating, all pretty tame. Brief references are made to a tragic coupling centuries ago and to an affair, and a man and woman are shown kissing.

-- Violence/scary situations: In a scene that shows the origins of the curse, a servant who had an affair with a blue-blooded man throws herself off a cliff. Men who are horrified by Penelope's face fling themselves out windows but, in general, it's all pretty mild.

-- Drug or alcohol use: Several scenes are set in a bar, and adults overindulge in alcohol.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)