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.
Best friends Edward Norton and Ben Stiller (a priest and
rabbi, respectively) question their lifestyles when a childhood pal (Jenna Elfman)
re-enters their lives. Also with Kryss Anderson, Anne Bancroft, Dagmara Dominczyk, Lisa
Edelstein, Milos Forman, Ken Leung, Ron Rifkin, Rena Sofer, Holland Taylor, Eli Wallach
and Brian Anthony Wilson. [2:09]
SEX/NUDITY 5 -Several instances of sexual innuendo and many kisses (in a few
scenes we see a man and woman kissing passionately in bed; in another scene a man leans
into a woman and kisses her passionately until she pushes him off). A man and woman kiss
passionately, a few items of clothing drop to the floor, he and she fall onto a bed and
then they are seen kissing and lying in bed, post-coitus (his bare chest is visible and we
see a close up of her bare leg rubbing his sheet-covered leg). In what turns out to be a
dream, a man helps a woman stretch her leg after running (the shot is framed so it
intentionally looks like they're doing something sexual, and they both say a few double
entendres); also, she licks his sweat from her finger, they kiss passionately and he rips
open her shirt (we briefly see her sports bra before the scene ends). Twice, a woman spies
on a man and woman kissing passionately (in one scene the man rubs the woman's clothed
buttocks and one of her legs is wrapped around his waist; in another scene the woman's
legs are wrapped around the man's waist and they're both moving up and down comically -
both are scantily clad). A man and woman have a flirty phone conversation (i.e. "What
are you wearing?") and a boy confesses to a priest about admiring a woman's breasts.
We briefly see a basic drawing of a nude woman's torso (it looks like the white lines that
show football plays onscreen; it appears, along with a few other drawings, when a boy
moves his finger in an attempt to make the sign of the cross). We see a man wearing
boxers, a woman wearing a bra and a skirt, a few women in cleavage-revealing tops and a
close up of a woman's bare thigh with a cell phone tucked into her garter belt.
VIOLENCE/GORE 2 - Mostly played for laughs: a boy choking and shaking two
other boys is kneed in the crotch by a girl, a man punches a woman in the stomach (at her
insistence), a man punches another, a man is clothes-lined by another, a man runs into
another while trying to get past him, a woman hits a homeless man with a bag, a man hits
another in the head with an incense holder, a boy smacks himself in the face, a man is
knocked down during a basketball game, what amounts to a few pratfalls, a man passes out
after hearing a snipping sound at a bris, a drunken man bumps into someone and falls onto
some trash bags, and a man's robe catches on fire and he extinguishes it by sitting in a
basin of what is presumably holy water.
the review continues below...
PROFANITY 4 - Two F-word derivations, some anatomical references and slang
terms (one is seen in subtitles), some scatological references, some mild obscenities
(plus many instances of "suck") and an insult. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Religion, faith, being a priest/rabbi, accepting different
religions, falling in love, deceit, drunkenness, friendship, rejection, strained family
relationships, commitment.
MESSAGE - Be honest with yourself and with others; have faith that they can
handle the truth. Love is oblivious to the boundaries of religion.
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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