Yes Day

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Short takes

Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 10 (violence, potential for imitative behaviours)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Yes Day
  • a review of Yes Day completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 22 April 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to violence and potential for imitative behaviours with regards to the children’s behaviours and exploits.
Children aged 8–9 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and potential for imitative behaviours with regards to the children’s behaviours and exploits.
Children aged 10 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: Yes Day
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild violence, very mild crude humour
Length: 87 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

For stay at home mum, Allison Torres (Jennifer Garner), the theme of her life used to be, “Yes”. Yes to skydiving, yes to rock climbing, yes to every random adventure that ever came her way. When she and husband Carlos (Edgar Ramirez) had kids, everything changed. In an effort to keep Katie (Jenna Ortega), Nando (Julian Lerner) and Ellie (Everly Carganilla) from ramming things in electrical sockets, falling off the roof or injuring themselves with science experiments, life was mostly, “No”. After a parent-teacher conference, during which Allison is portrayed as a dictator, she and Carlos decide to try a ‘Yes Day’, where, after a few ground rules are laid, they say yes to everything their children request for 24 hours. Katie, who desperately wants to attend a festival that her mother doesn’t approve of, makes a bet with her mum that she will never be able to say yes for the whole day, and she and her siblings concoct all sorts of activities she is sure her mum will refuse. When tensions flare and plans go awry, Allison discovers that her daughter is mature in ways she never imagined, and Katie learns that sometimes “No” is the best answer she could ever receive.

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.

Losing your identity to a role you must play; Good parent versus bad parent; The evolution of families; Children being rude to parents.

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:

  • There is a Kool-Aid filled water balloon fight that resembles a game of war. Characters are hit, overtaken and knocked to the ground as teams vie to get the flags.
  • Carlos is attacked by violent birds and taken to the hospital.
  • An ambulance officer offers to beat up Carlos for Allison.
  • Allison and another character fight over a stuffed gorilla, damaging a stand and horrifying onlookers in the process.
  • Carlos gets kicked in the crotch.
  • Boys have a pillow fight.
  • Party goers damage the house by knocking over the TV, damaging and breaking things, jumping on furniture, spraying soda everywhere and filling the house with foam.
  • Carlos gets knocked off his feet as someone surfs down the stairs and right into him.

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:

  • None noted.

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:

  • Some children may be worried when Katie is alone at a festival, unable to contact anyone and scared about how she is going to get home. She loses her phone and is sobbing before finally finding her mum.

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.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Magic Mountain, Kool-Aid and Ford are all visited, consumed or used in the film.
  • The Bachelor (TV show) is referenced by a couple of characters.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A fictitious TV show called, Insatiable Island, is described as being sexy and romantic.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • Three male characters pull up their shirts to show off their ‘ripped abs’ to Allison.
  • Carlos and the kids demonstrate ‘twerking.’
  • Carlos and Allison kiss on a number of occasions.

Use of substances

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

  • A random person at a concert appears to be under the influence of something as she grabs Katie and calls her by another name. Some other people at the same concert appear to be either drunk or high.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Shut up!
  • Sucks.
  • Wuss.
  • Skeegy.
  • Smart Alec.

In a nutshell

Yes Day is a family film based on the book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, where (with a few ground rules) the parents have to say yes to everything their children request, for a whole day. It features a wonderful cast and a fun yet predictable plot. Due to questionable content and potential for imitative behaviours with regards to the children’s behaviours and exploits, this is not a film for younger kids but rather one that will best be enjoyed by older children and parents.

The main messages from this movie are that despite all the ups and downs of everyday life, families share an unbreakable bond; and that getting to do everything you want isn’t always as fun as you may imagine.

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

  • Creativity
  • Enthusiasm
  • Loyalty
  • Responsibility
  • Communication
  • Empathy
  • Teamwork and cooperation.

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

  • Sneaking off to a concert even though you know your parents will not approve.
  • Having a party without adults present.
  • Potentially dangerous behaviours such as mixing chemicals, tying a sibling to a makeshift rocket, or attempting to repel from your second story bedroom using sheets.
  • Blindly following your friends even if they are doing something dangerous.
  • Being disrespectful to your parents.