Love’s Brother

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Love’s Brother's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Love’s Brother completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 22 March 2004.

Overall comments and recommendations

Love’s Brother is a delightful movie that will appeal to a wide audience. The acting and the scenery are superbly done showing the cultural contribution the Italian migrant population brought to this country back in the 1950’s. Although the ending is somewhat predictable it is a charming tale about the proxy brides that were apparently brought to Australia in large numbers for the young Italian males

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 Love’s Brother contains the following information:

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

A synopsis of the story

Angelo and Gino are two brothers who, having lost both their parents, migrate to Australia from Italy in the 1950s in the hope of building a better life. Angelo, the older brother, is shy but caring and not particularly good looking. His younger brother Gino is handsome, self confident and always bailing Angelo out of difficult situations. They share a strong bond and love for each other. Gino has no trouble meeting girls but Angelo has great difficulty and so enlists the help of Senora Carmelina who arranges marriages between local boys and young Italian girls back in Italy.

Having been rejected on several occasions, Angelo is wary of trying again but when he sees the photo of Rosetta, a beautiful young girl from Southern Italy, he decides he will try again. However Angelo decides to do something quite uncharacteristic and sends his brother Gino’s photo instead of his own. Rosetta likes the look of the young man in the photo but is naturally afraid of travelling so far to an unknown land and leaving behind her mother and brothers and sisters. Rosetta’s mother believes life will be better for her in Australia and persuades her that it is her destiny.

When she arrives in Australia she is dismayed to learn that ‘Angelo’ is really Gino but being a well mannered girl tries hard to hide her displeasure. She stays with the boys’ sponsor family until she decides what she will do. Gino is attracted by her beauty but because of his love for Angelo is determined that she should marry him. Gino remains adamant that he is in love with his girlfriend Connie and that he is going to marry her. However, events don’t always work out the way they’re planned.

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 no violence in this movie.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Aged eight to thirteen

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

Over the age of thirteen

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.

There is nothing really scary in this movie apart from the fact that Rosetta leaves her family to travel alone all the way to Australia.

Product placement

Research shows that children, particularly children under the age of eight, are vulnerable to product placement in movies. Even if the child doesn’t recall seeing a particular brand in the movie, they will choose that brand in preference to another, if they have just seen it used or displayed in a movie. This effect may be exacerbated if the product is highlighted as part of the story or if an actor or character they admire is seen to endorse or enjoy the product.

No products were displayed or used in this movie.

Sexual references

There are a few sexual references:

• Connie tells Gino that she wants to wait (to have sex) until after she’s married.
• Gino talks to Angelo the night before his wedding and asks him if he’s nervous about getting married. He asks him if “he’s ever done ‘it’ before”. Angelo replies, “what’s ‘it’?”
• Gino’s cupboard is full of girlie magazines which he throws out of his bedroom window and are picked up by some old men out on the street who have a good look.

Nudity and sexual activity

Gino and Connie are kissing passionately in the car and afterwards Connie pulls her top back on.

Use of substances

There is drinking and smoking in a hotel and at the wedding.

Coarse language

There is a little coarse language, including one use of ‘for Christ’s sake’.

The movie's message

The take home message is to believe in yourself and to value your own qualities.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• selflessness
• loyalty
• taking pride in your heritage
• being loving and caring
• courage
• thoughtfulness.