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John Cusack plays a recently jilted, thirtysomething record
store owner who seeks closure on his past relationships and insight into his murky future.
Based on a novel by Nick Hornby. Also with Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black, Lisa
Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joan Cusack, Tim Robbins, Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, Sara
Gilbert, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Rehmann and Ben Carr. [1:53]
SEX/NUDITY 6 - Lots of sexual innuendo and several kisses, sometimes
passionate. A man imagines (and we see on the screen) a close-up of a man's hand running
up the side of a woman's bare thigh and buttocks, a shirtless man standing in back of a
topless woman and fondling her breasts (his hands completely cover her breasts) and a
bare-backed woman straddling and thrusting into a man who's standing (their moans and
movements are exaggerated and played for laughs). Some scenes in which a man and woman are
either pre- or post-coitus but the act isn't seen: a couple of times a man and woman kiss
passionately (either in bed or elsewhere), a shirtless man is seen in bed with a woman,
and a woman straddles a man in the front seat of a car and kisses him passionately. We
hear a bed squeaking, implying that a couple is having intercourse. In one scene we see
many teenagers kissing at a party; during the scene a boy touches a girl's clothed breasts
and puts his hand up her skirt, but she pushes his hand away. A man moves his hips
rhythmically and pretends as if he's fondling a woman's breasts and spanking her. A woman
takes off her shirt and her bra (we see, from the back, the bottom part of her bare
breast). We see some women wearing cleavage-revealing tops, a small part of a man's upper
buttocks when he bends over in too-small pants and a man and woman wrapped in sheets.
VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - In a dream sequence played for laughs, a man is punched
and kicked repeatedly by three men and hit in the head with a phone and a TV (we see blood
on his face). A man grabs another and shoves him against a rack, a man slaps another and
grabs his shirt, a man rips posters off a wall, a man falls over a counter and a man falls
over a fence. A skateboarder runs into a man's leg and the man then swings at him with a
bag. We see a small explosion in a high school chemistry class (no one is injured).
PROFANITY 10 - About 55 F-words, lots of anatomical references, many
scatological references, a couple of mild obscenities, several insults and a profane
finger gesture. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Romantic relationships, failed relationships, cheating, the
impact music can have on our lives, the music industry, death of a loved one, abortion.
MESSAGE - At some point you have to accept and commit to the realities of a
relationship and stop comparing it to and expecting it to be a fantasy relationship.
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