Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All

image for Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All

Short takes

Not suitable under 10; not recommended under 12; parental guidance for 12-year-olds (coarse language, adult themes, sexual references)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All
  • a review of Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 28 February 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to coarse language, adult themes and sexual references.
Children aged 10-11 Not recommended due to adult themes and sexual references.
Children aged 12 Parental guidance recommended due to adult themes and sexual references.
Children aged 13 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

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: Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes, crude humour, sexual references, coarse language
Length: 112 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

The Fisherman’s Friends are mourning the loss of their lead singer Jago (David Hayman), Jim’s (James Purefoy) father and husband of Maggie (Maggie Steed). Jim is having a particularly hard time coming to terms with his loss and takes to drinking heavily. Maggie, meanwhile, is determined to get their second album released as a tribute to Jago. Island Records is reluctant, however, to record it but Leah (Jade Anouka), the managing director, manages to persuade her boss to give it a go. They first need to find a replacement for Jago, which is ably filled by a Welshman, Morgan Jenkins (Richard Harrington). Jim doesn’t take kindly to Morgan, however, which causes a falling out.

Island Records decide to bump the album due to the instability of the band. Maggie again manages to do a deal with them, saying if the Fisherman’s Friends get a gig at Glastonbury would they reconsider recording the album, which they agree to. In the meantime, Maggie is out walking one day with her granddaughter, Tamsyn (Meadow Nobrega), when they fall into an unused mineshaft, rendering Maggie unconscious. A search party is sent out and Jim eventually locates them. With the help of Morgan, Jim manages to pull Maggie and Tamsyn out of the shaft, cementing a friendship between the two men. They go on to get their gig at Glastonbury and the recording of the album.

Themesinfo

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.

Grief; Death and Loss; Musical bands; Alcoholism.

Use of violenceinfo

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:

  • Rowan, a member of the band, is confronted by his wife Sally after she finds a text from a woman on his phone. She shouts at him and tells him not to come home.
  • Jim attacks Morgan and punches him on the nose. A bit of a fight breaks out.
  • Jim has a go at a media photographer and pushes him away.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Nothing particularly scary noted for this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

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.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Maggie and Tamsyn are shown injured at the bottom of a mineshaft. Maggie is unconscious and Tamsyn has injured her arm. Maggie is airlifted to hospital, where she is connected to heart monitors. Jim is told the next 24 hours are critical but Maggie survives. She is seen walking with a crutch and a sling over her arm. Tamsyn has a broken arm which has a plaster on it.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

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.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Leadville, another member of the band, obviously has a prostrate problem. He has difficulty peeing and when he does, he says, “there she blows”.
  • Jim is often seen talking to his dead father, who appears on the screen. He has many conversations with him and Jago also comes to the hospital to be with Maggie. Some children might find this confusing.

Thirteen and overinfo

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.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Island Records
  • Universal Studios
  • Independent Newspaper
  • Glastonbury Music Festival.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A media training expert advising the band on gender neutral pronouns states that, “you don’t know if she’s ever been married or had sexual intercourse”.
  • Jim refers to Morgan as a ‘sheep shagger’.
  • Rowan tells Sally about the woman in Grimsby, that he liked the attention and it made him feel wanted. He’d felt neglected after the baby arrived.
  • A female singer called Aubrey has a relationship with Jim. She tells him about how she found out her husband had been having an affair. Jim tells Aubrey that he found out his wife had been having an affair for a few years.
  • One of the band members tells Maggie, who is worried about losing Jim, that he’s a grown man and entitled to take a woman.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Leadville drops his pants to pee, exposing his buttocks.
  • Jim and Aubrey kiss passionately. They are seen in bed together; Aubrey has a black negligee on.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • There’s quite a lot of drinking in the movie in various venues, in pubs, at home, at events etc.
  • Jim obviously has a drinking problem and is often seen drinking from a flask, which causes him to be aggressive.
  • A female singer called Aubrey had a meltdown on stage due to alcohol abuse. She is now a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for over 3 years.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Bloody
  • Prick
  • Christ
  • Shit
  • Bleeding
  • Oh God
  • Crap
  • What the hell?
  • Buggers
  • Piss off
  • Arse.

In a nutshell

Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All is a light drama about the musical group finding its way after losing its lead singer and father of one of the other singers. The cinematography of the Cornish coastline is breathtaking and the music is very uplifting. However, the film deals with topics such as grief and infidelity, and contains quite a bit of coarse language, making it unsuitable for children under 10. The movie is more suitable for families with older children.

The main messages from this movie are that ‘it’s okay not to be okay’; and not to be ashamed or embarrassed to ask for help.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Forgiveness
  • Acceptance of differences
  • Redemption
  • Kindness
  • Friendship.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Jim publicly owns up to his bad behaviour caused by the death of his father. The band forgives him and he’s able to move on. Jim says that boys aren’t supposed to cry but he has. It’s important for boys (and all of us) to learn how to express their feelings and not to bottle things up, which leads to a deterioration in mental health.