One Chance

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Not recommended under 14 (Themes; Violence; Sexual references; Coarse language), PG to 14- 15 (Themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for One Chance
  • a review of One Chance completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 2 December 2013.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 14 Not recommended due to themes, violence, sexual references and coarse language
Children 14 to 15 Parental guidance recommended due to themes
Children 15 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: One Chance
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild coarse language, violence and sexual references
Length: 103 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

One Chance tells the story of Paul Potts (James Corden), the first ever winner of reality television show Britain’s Got Talent.  As a child Paul, was overweight and unpopular with his peers. Often a victim of bullying, he escaped from this reality through his singing talents.  As he grew older he developed his passion for singing opera, a talent which his mother (Julie Walters) encouraged but his father (Colm Meaney) despised.

Paul is lost as a young adult, torn by the decision whether to find a sensible job or reach for his operatic dreams. He meets his one and only love Julie-Ann (Alexandra Roach), but despite her love and encouragement behind him Paul still finds that his life is fraught with many challenges and begin to lose faith in himself and his talent.  It’s not until a once in a lifetime opportunity arises that Paul decides to throw caution to the wind and give his talent one last chance.

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.

Teasing and bullying; childhood illness; talent quests

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 the following examples:

  • A number of bullying incidents are referred to in this movie including seeing Paul at various ages being chased by a gang of bullies.  In one scene he is grabbed by one of the bullies and he runs into a pole and knocks out his teeth.  He is seen lying on the ground with blood coming from his mouth.  One of the boys spits into his mouth.
  • Paul is approached by a gang of men who threaten him and then punch him.  Paul falls to the ground and the men kick him and hit him.  One of the men grabs a chain and wraps it around his fist with the intent of punching him with it but as he does one of Paul’s friends hits the man over the head with a guitar.  He falls to the ground but is still conscious.
  • Paul’s father punches a man in the face after he insults his son.

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:

  • As a child Paul faints and collapses to the ground.  He is seen being rushed to hospital and operated on.
  • As an adult Paul is on his bike when he is hit by a car and breaks several bones in his body.  He is seen in hospital in a cast over most of his body.

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.

Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by tha above-mentioned scenes and by a reference to the negative relationship between Paul and his father.  Whilst it is fairly mild and refers to his father not being supportive of him singing opera, some kids who are sensitive to this dynamic may find it upsetting that his father does not support and stand up  for his son.

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.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by Paul’s relationship with his father and by the way in which Paul is bullied.

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.

Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by the above-mentioned themes

Product placement

There is some product placement in this movie, including;

  • Carphone Warehouse
  • Daily Mirror
  • Lancome
  • Colgate
  • Listerine
  • Burger King
  • Tesco
  • Nokia
  • Britain’s Got Talent enterprise
  • Boots chemist

Sexual references

There are many sexual references in this movie, including:

  • References to sex scenes, including one scene where Paul’s friend describes how he had ‘fantasy sex’ as a unicorn with his girlfriend.
  • Some flirting between characters including hand holding, winking, blowing kisses
  • One scene where Paul’s mother tells her husband to thrust his hips at her, and is seen dancing in a provocative manner.
  • Paul states in one scene that he may need to ‘sell his body’ for money
  • Julie-Ann and Paul discuss their sexual history.  Julie-Ann jokingly states she has ‘had thousands’.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • There are a number of kissing scenes in the movie between Julie-Ann and Paul and another scene where a friend of Paul’s kisses him passionately.
  • There is one scene on Julie-Ann and Paul’s wedding night where Julie-Ann strips down to her underwear.  They kiss and fall on to the bed

Use of substances

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

  • scenes in pubs where adults are seen drinking
  • Paul’s mate comes to work carrying a bottle of spirits and is seen to be intoxicated
  • Julie-Ann skulls a pint of beer

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • sod off
  • prick
  • shit
  • bull-shitters
  • ass
  • shag
  • tosser
  • crap
  • fucking
  • butt

In a nutshell

One Chance is the story of Paul Potts, the winner of a popular British talent show.  It tells the story of Paul’s difficult childhood and how his life was turned around after being given one more chance to shine. It is not recommended for children under 14. It lacks interest for young children and contains  themes (particularly bullying), scenes of violence, sexual references and coarse language which make it unsuitable for this age group. Parental guidance is recommended to 15

The main messages from this movie are about love and its challenges.

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

  • Follow your dreams
  • Being true to yourself and not trying to emulate others

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

  • Reality television shows - How likely is it that someone will become famous after being on a talent show.  How else could Paul have nurtured his talent?
  • Mental health - Near the end of the movie Paul seems to be depressed and unmotivated?  Why was this? Could he have helped himself?