Mother of the Bride (2024)

image for Mother of the Bride (2024)

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Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 12 (sexual references, language, themes, crude humour)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Mother of the Bride (2024)
  • a review of Mother of the Bride (2024) completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 6 August 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to sexual references, language, scary scenes and crude humour.
Children aged 10–12 Parental guidance recommended due to sexual references, mild course language and crude humour.
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: Mother of the Bride (2024)
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild coarse language, sexual references and crude humour
Length: 91 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Young professional Emma Winslow (Miranda Cosgrove) is surprised by her boyfriend RJ (Sean Teale) with a romantic proposal. She excitedly accepts but expresses concern about her mother Lana’s (Brook Shields) reaction. Flying home, Emma announces both her engagement and her intention to run her own business, with her previous employer Discovery Resorts sponsoring her destination wedding in return for publicity. Stunned by the news, Lana is concerned that this may not be what Emma really wants, however, she insists that she is happy for Emma.

After traveling to Phuket for the wedding, Lana meets up with her college friends Janice (Rachael Harris), Clay (Michael McDonald) and Scott (Wilson Cruz). While catching up, she discovers that RJ’s father is none other than Will Jackson (Benjamin Bratt), her ex-boyfriend who broke her heart in their college years. As the wedding planning progresses, both Lana and Emma begin to advocate for themselves and follow their hearts, with Lana learning that it is never too late for love.

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.

Overcoming heartbreak; Love; Not losing yourself for others; Grief; Loss; Regret; Corporate Marketisation.

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:

  • Lana hits a ball into Will’s groin, causing him to fall backwards to the floor in pain.
  • Lana drops her chair on Will’s foot, causing him to yell and limp backwards.

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:

  • Characters fall or jump, fully clothed, into large bodies of water on two separate occasions, with no injury.

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:

  • Lana discusses the death of Emma’s dad from a car accident when she was 8 years old.
  • It is discussed that RJ’s mother left them shortly after he was born, forcing Will to become a single father.
  • There are multiple scenes where characters get into arguments and yell at each other, which are resolved shortly afterward.

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:

  • Lana gets upset in multiple scenes, looking teary and discussing her feelings of being betrayed, heartbroken and abandoned by Will.
  • Lana’s emotional struggles after the death of Emma’s father are briefly mentioned, with her brushing them off to conceal her true feelings.

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:

  • Billboards in London at the start of the film advertise McDonalds, Burberry, Hyundai and Coca-Cola.
  • Emma frequently discusses her social media engagement on Instagram; Instagram homepage is shown.
  • Multiple close-ups of Singha beer are shown, particularly on a beach alongside a tablet playing “We Got the Beat” by The Go-Gos.
  • A character is shown buying snacks from a supermarket, particularly Lays and Pringles.
  • Emma is shown working on an Apple MacBook and an Apple iPhone.
  • The Anatara Resorts logo is shown on many of the staff’s uniforms throughout the film.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Lana accidentally hits a ball into Will’s privates, and there is a close up of Will grabbing at his groin area in pain. Janice later remarked about how Lana had “hit the ball into his pickle”.
  • Janice frequently sexualises male characters, pointing out their body parts and referring to them in a sexual manner.
  • Janice meets resort staff member Harley, and quips that she’s “never ridden a Harley before”.
  • Lana and Janice stare at a much younger, shirtless man who Lana ends up going on a date with.
  • While on a date, a male character jokes that the date must be going well because Lana is “already talking about her caboose”.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • There are many scenes where men are shirtless (non-sexually).
  • Lana walks in on Will, just out of the shower, where he is fully naked apart from a hat over his genitals.
  • The engaged couple are seen kissing, as well as multiple other couples including Clay and Scott.
  • Four characters go skinny-dipping together, nothing is shown apart from their silhouettes.

Use of substances

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

  • In many of the scenes of the movie, characters are seen holding and sipping from cocktails.
  • Four adult characters are seen drinking beer and getting visibly drunk on a beach.
  • Characters are seen taking shots at the wedding reception.
  • Janice is seen visibly suffering from a hangover.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Jerk
  • Jackass
  • Ass
  • Hell
  • Piss you off/pissed off
  • Crap.
  • Lana gets called a “pain in the ass”.
  • Janice asks Lana if she wanted to “tear her a new one” (referring to the wedding planner).

In a nutshell

Mother of the Bride is a romantic comedy that is witty and heartwarming, if somewhat predictable. However, this film has significant crude/sexualised humour, with many characters either sexualised or engaging in sexualising others. This, alongside the darker themes such as heartbreak, grief and a fear of being alone, make it not suitable for children under 10 and parental guidance is warranted for children aged 10 to 12.

The main messages from this movie are the importance of family and second chances; the importance of a strong support network; and that it is never too late for love.

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

  • Teamwork
  • Family Relationships
  • Persistence
  • Resilience
  • Believing in yourself.

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

  • The importance of open communication to avoid misunderstandings.
  • That social media is not everything, and it is important to take a step back and put yourself and your needs above social media engagement.
  • How you can navigate grief and heartbreak.