Jasper Jones

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Jasper Jones
• a review of Jasper Jones completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 27 February 2017.

Overall comments and recommendations

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.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

The film takes places during the summer of 1969 in the fictional Western Australian town of Corrigan. In the dead of night, 14 year-old Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller), an awkward book loving nerd, is woken by a knock on his bedroom window. Jasper Jones (Aaron L, McGrath), an older teenager considered by the locals to be “dangerous” asks Charlie for his trust and then tells Charlie to follow him into the night. Jasper leads Charlie deep into the bush where Jasper shows Charlies the dead body of a teenage girl, Laura Wishart, who is hanging by the neck from a tree.

The rope tied around Laura’s neck belongs to Jasper and, with Laura being a local white girl and Jasper indigenous, Jasper fears he will immediately be blamed for Laura’s death. Jasper begs Charlie to help him find Laura’s killer and prove his innocence. So Charlie and Jasper hide Laura’s body, and Charlie returns to his bedroom as though nothing has happened while Jasper lays low.

The next day Charlie unexpectedly runs into Laura’s younger sister Eliza (Angourie Rice) and they quickly become friends as a result of the turmoil created by Laura’s disappearance. Charlie and Jasper’s investigation leads them into unexpected situations. Charlie has to confront racists and finds out that his mother is having an affair, while Jasper discovers a grandfather he never knew he had.

Charlie, Jasper and Eliza’s friendship, trust and courage are tested to the full when the truth behind Laura’s death reveals dark, ugly and forbidden secrets resulting in unexpected outcomes.

Racism; Infidelity and marriage breakdown; Suicide; Incest and rape resulting in pregnancy.

The film contains a number of references to violence and violent scenes, some of them emotionally intense. Examples include:

• A boy tells a story about a local man who became addicted to killing, shot a woman and hung up her body to bleed out.
• A mother shouts in rage at her 14 year-old son and then slaps him across the face.
• In one emotionally intense scene, we see a distraught woman shout at a Vietnamese woman telling her “Your son eats like a pig while mine was killed” (the woman’s son was recently killed in Vietnam). The Caucasian woman then throws a cup of boiling hot tea over the Vietnamese woman who cries out in pain.
• A boy talks about how he heard his girlfriend screaming and then a short time later found her dead.
• Two policemen wrestle with Jasper Jones in a bid to restrain him.  Later we see Jasper limping badly.  He has blood smeared across his nose and a bloody cut to the eye, and says that he can’t hear because he was hit on the ear.     
• An angry mother tells her 14 year-old son “Tomorrow you’re going to wish you weren’t alive”.
• In an act of racial and mob violence, several Caucasian men invade the front yard of a Vietnamese man and violently attack him calling him a “Red Rat” punching him in the face and body and knocking him to the ground. A single Caucasian man approaches leader of the attackers and punches him in the stomach knocking the man to the ground and stopping the fight.
• In one scene a young man points a rifle at an old man for several minutes before he is reasoned with and lowers the rifle.
• A suicide letter details how the person that committed suicide had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by her father over a prolonged period and had as a result become pregnant.  
• We hear a report of a teenage girl’s suicide as witnessed by her younger sister.

Material that may scare or disturb children

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:

• The body of a young woman hangs by the neck from a large tree limb; we see a clear image of the dead woman’s face. The rope around the dead woman’s neck is cut and her body falls to the ground.  A young man carries the dead woman to a dam, submerges the body in the water and places a large rock on top to make it sink.   

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:

• On several occasions we see a group of older local boys (Caucasian) victimising and demeaning a teenage Vietnamese boy.

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:

• We hear an emotionally intense tale of a man panicked when driving a sick woman to hospital and lost control of his car, which crashed killing the woman.  

• Younger viewers in this age group may also be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes

Product placement

• None noted.

Sexual references

There are sexual references in this movie, including:

• A suicide note tells of sexual assault of a teenage girl by her father, resulting in pregnancy
• Two teen boys discuss why mermaids are sexy, suggesting it was because of their “boobies”  
• A teen boy asks another boy whether he would rather have, spiders or penises for fingers. In a later scene one of the boys asks a girl the same question.
• We hear a younger man state that he was planning to run away with his girlfriend.

 

Nudity and sexual activity

The film contains some sexual activity. Examples include:

• A teenage girl flirts with a teenage boy, asking him to walk her home. Later in the film we see them holding hands and hugging each other.  
• A teenage boy watches his mother dance in a sensual manner before she abruptly stops when she realises she is being watched.
• A boy sees his mother passionately kissing a strange man in the back of a parked car.  

Use of substances

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

• Smoking by adults and an adolescent.
• Several scenes depict characters drinking alcohol, socially and in other situation. Two adults are seen drunk.  Jasper and Charlie drink from a hip flask.

Coarse language

The film contains coarse language and name-calling scattered throughout. Examples include:

• ‘little bugger’; ‘Asian commie’; ‘fuck’ is used more than once and in various forms; ‘shit’; ‘Jesus Christ’ ;’ little bastards’; ‘bullshit’.

In a nutshell

Jasper Jones (M) is most suitable for an older adolescent and adult audience. The film, based upon the novel of the same name by Craig Silvey, is a coming of age story featuring small town racism and victimisation, and a hunt for the truth.

The film’s young lead actors and publicity for the film may attract younger viewers, but parents should note that the film contains some very emotionally intense scenes and themes such as suicide and incest that younger teens may find disturbing and confusing.  For this reason, the film is not suitable for children under 13, and not recommended for children under 15.

The main messages from this movie are:

• Charlie’s message that “courage is the mastery of fear not its absence”
• Family secrets of all kinds can cause great harm and distress.

Parents of older teens may wish to discuss the effects of incest on all family members and the racist attitudes towards both Indigenous and Vietnamese people seen in the town of Corrigan.