Down With Love

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Down With Love's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Down With Love completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 9 September 2003.

Overall comments and recommendations

Down with Love is a comedy about the battle of the sexes with quite a twist at the end. It is interesting to see how far women have progressed since the 1960s although equality still has some way to go. The fact that the film is made now means that sex and sexuality can be discussed in more frank terms than would have been possible in the sixties, however it is quite a satire on the romantic comedies of that time. Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor are both very funny in their roles.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Down With Love contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Down with Love is set in 1962, in the days when female editor Vikki Hiller has to make coffee for the all male management. Kim Novak comes from Maine to New York to publish her book ‘Down with Love’ which encourages sexual equality for women and discusses the idea that women frequently confuse sex with love. The book states that women should be able to enjoy sex without being concerned with love and have sex ‘a la carte’ like men do. Vikki works hard to promote the book but doesn’t have much luck until she manages to get Kim to appear on the Ed Sullivan show. The book then becomes a huge success and women everywhere start to rebel against their traditional subservient roles.

One man this has a direct impact on is Catcher Block, “a Ladies’ Man, Man’s Man, Man about the Town” who writes for Know Magazine, a men’s magazine. The ladies now realise that Catcher is a real male chauvinist and refuse his advances. Catcher sets out to take revenge on Kim Novak by pretending to be Zip Martin, a mild, naive astronaut working for NASA who plans to make her fall in love with him. Zip insists on a chaste relationship which results in them both falling in love and creates some very funny situations.

Use of violence

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 a little violence in this movie, including:

• a wife hits her husband over the head with a book
• Vikki knocks Catcher out with a punch and slaps Peter McManus (owner of Know Magazine) across the face.

Material that may scare children

There is nothing scary in this movie.

Sexual references

This movie is all about sexual references and innuendo. There is much frank talk about sex and sexuality. Also Vikki thinks one of the other characters is homosexual and in love with Catcher.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity but plenty of brief clothing, cleavage, etc. Kim dances in brief underwear, stockings and suspenders, getting ready for the ‘big night’ when she and Zip plan to have sex.

In one scene Kim and Zip are talking on the telephone and by using a split screen sexual activity is implied. There are no actual sex scenes.

Use of substances

There is quite a lot of smoking and drinking of alcohol in this movie. Vikki appears to be a chain smoker.

Coarse language

There is not much use of coarse language. The word ‘bitch’ is used once.

The movie's message

One of the underlying themes in this movie is that two people can fall in love and have a really good relationship without having sex.

Values that parents may wish to encourage include:

• equal gender roles
• taking responsibility for one’s own actions

Values that parents may wish to discourage include:

• immorality
• having sex without feelings.