Not suitable under 13; parental guidance to 15 (sexual references and themes)
This topic contains:
Children under 13 | Not suitable due to sexual references and themes. |
Children aged 13–14 | Parental guidance recommended due to sexual references and themes. |
Children aged 15 and over | Ok for this age group. |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | Definitely, Maybe |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild sexual references and coarse language. |
Length: | 112 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
A disenchanted advertising executive Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), in an attempt to explain his impending divorce to his young daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin), tells her the story of how he met her mother. Will disguises the characters so that Maya will have to guess which of the three main women in her father’s youth became his wife and her mother.
Emily (Elizabeth Banks) was Will’s college sweetheart and they appeared to have “a plan” that included marriage in the not too distant future. However the plan went awry when Will accepted a position in New York and Emily slept with his old roommate.
In New York Will met Summer Hartley (Rachel Weisz) but, while buying an engagement ring for Summer, ran into April (Isla Fisher) with whom he had had a previous relationship. April had returned from Europe knowing that she was in love with Will, but by the time Will realised how he felt about April and ended things with Summer, April was in a relationship with someone else.
At the end of Will’s story Maya accurately guesses which woman is her mother. However, the storytelling doesn’t have the result that Maya had hoped it would have. It doesn’t reignite any old feelings or help her parents realise why and how they had loved each other so much in the first place. It does, however, give her father some perspective and encourage him to do something that he should have done years earlier.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Relationship breakdown and divorce
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
There is some violence in this movie including:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
Apart from the above mentioned scenes, children under five are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this movie.
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
Apart from the above mentioned scenes, children under eight are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this movie.
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Apart from the violent scenes mentioned above, children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Definitely, Maybe is a romantic comedy that is likely to appeal to women. The film is well cast with an involving plot but, due to the themes and sexual references, is not a family film.
The main messages from this movie are that not everything in life works out just the way you want it and that happy endings come in many different ways.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with older children include:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss the real-life consequences of
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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ABN: 16 005 214 531