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.
Based on the novel by Natalie Babbitt, about a young woman (Alexis Bledel) who rebels against her
domineering mother's control and runs into a forest near her home. She gets lost and happens upon a young man (Jonathan Jackson) whose
family is kind and generous but has a powerful secret. She has to decide whether she will return to her mother, or stay with the young man
and his family. Also with Sissy Spacek, William Hurt, Amy Irving, Scott Bairstow, Victor Garber and Ben Kingsley. [1:90]
SEX/NUDITY 2 - A young man and a young woman kiss several times, lie on the ground holding each other, hold hands a few
times, and spin and dance together. A young man takes off his clothes down to his long johns and a young woman takes off her dress down to
her slip and they swim together (they hold each other and hug while swimming). A young woman is shown in her corset. There is a discussion
of a young woman "snaring suitors."
VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A man is hit on the head with a rifle butt and falls to the ground, dead. A young man is shot in the
stomach and falls back on the ground (he gets back up and we see a hole in his shirt). Two young men threaten a man with swords and they
are both shot, they fall to the ground but then get up again. A young woman runs from a young man and is grabbed by another young man on
horseback; the young woman kicks and punches. A man's house is burned by a crowd carrying torches, and another man sets his own house on
fire. A man is thrown out of a saloon and lands hard on the ground. A young woman screams and yells for help. A young woman walking
through a forest alone hears noises and is frightened. A man is held at gunpoint, and we see a dead man lying on a table. A woman climbs
into bed with her elderly mother as she takes her last breath. A young man finds a gravestone and grieves and we see a man in a dark
cemetery. Two young men are followed by a mysterious man. A young man talks about another young man having fallen 30 feet and landing on
his neck, that a young man was bitten by a rattlesnake, and that a horse was shot three times. People say a woman will hang and we see a
noose. People talk about a woman and her two children having died.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Fate, time, immortality, war, disappearance of a child, running away, blasphemy, grief, guilt, loss, old
age, cheating, melancholy, grifters, the soul, the cycle of life.
MESSAGE - We should not fear death but rather the unlived life.
(Note: A man drinks alcohol. There is discussion of a woman having left her husband because she was convinced that he sold his soul
to the devil.)
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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