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.
In this comedy/drama, a boy (Jamie Bell) gives up boxing
and takes up ballet, much to the dismay of his coal-mining father and brother. Also with
Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jamie Draven, Jean Heywood, Stuart Wells, Mike Elliot, Billy
Fane and Nicola Blackwell. [1:50]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - While on a bed, a boy leans over a girl while she touches his
cheek (he gets up before they kiss). A girl tells a boy that her parents sleep in separate
beds and don't have sex, and also mentions her father's infidelity. A man tells a group of
boys not to engage in any "hanky-panky" with girls who are taking a dance class
next to them. A girl offers to show a boy her "fanny." Twice, a boy gives
another a peck on the cheek. We see a man's bare buttocks when he "moons" police
officers; also, we see several shirtless male dancers, a few shirtless boys throughout the
film, a man's bare chest and legs when he's sitting in a bathtub, and a man wearing a tank
top and underwear (he's onscreen for a second).
VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - In a few scenes, a crowd of striking workers being held
back by a line of police officers yell and throw eggs at a bus of people crossing union
lines; in one scene, police officers chase after a crowd (a few people are shoved and one
is knocked down); they chase one man in particular for awhile, and after they catch him
and knock him to the ground, they hit him with sticks (we see
some blood on a sheet
wrapped around his body; in a later scene he's fine). A man punches another and knocks him
to the ground (the man's lip is slightly bloody), a boy punches another and knocks him off
a bench, a woman slaps a boy's face, two men yell and shove each other, a man rattles
another's grocery cart and yells at him, a man grasps the back of a boy's neck and leads
him out of a room, a man grabs a boy and shoves him against a wall, a boy punches a sign a
few times, and a boy kicks a fence a few times. A man smashes a piano into pieces with a
hammer. The following are played for laughs (or at least not to be taken too seriously): a
man swats a boy's nose with a magazine, a boy hits another boy's head with a pencil twice,
a boy shoves another, a boy is punched in the face and knocked to the ground during a
boxing match, a boy falls down a few times while trying to perfect his dance turns and
positions, a boy pushes a man off a fence they're sitting on, and a boy and a girl have a
pillow fight. Some scenes of people yelling at each other. A man spits on a police car;
also, a man urinates on a snowman.
the review continues below...
PROFANITY 10 - Sometimes spoken by kids. About 48 F-words, several
anatomical slang terms, lots of scatological references, several mild obscenities, and a
few insults. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Defying traditional gender roles, learning ballet, union
strikes, crossing union lines, loss of a parent, dysfunctional families, father-son
relationships, poverty, the assumption that male dancers are homosexuals, cross-dressing
(in one scene a boy wears a dress and says that his father wears dresses too), underage
drinking (two boys take a swig of liquor, and one spits it out).
MESSAGE - Follow your dreams and be true to yourself; where there's a will,
there's a way.
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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