Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Win a Date with Tad Hamilton's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Win a Date with Tad Hamilton completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 13 April 2004.

Overall comments and recommendations

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is fairly light entertainment mainly aimed at the adolescent audience. However it has a good underlying message in that there is more to a person than just their looks which is quite refreshing. Topher Grace (Pete) plays the part of the aggrieved third party really well.

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 Win a Date with Tad Hamilton 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

Tad Hamilton is a gorgeous movie star adored by teenage girls everywhere. However his reputation is becoming tarnished and has been seen “drinking, driving, leering, smoking and groping all at the same time”. His management feel this won’t do his career any good and so set out to reinvent his image by putting on a competition to ‘win a date with Tad Hamilton’ with all proceeds going to charity. They choose a hometown country girl from West Virginia, Rosalee, who works at the local Piggly Wiggly supermarket. Rosalee is naturally over the moon and heads off to California leaving behind Pete, the supermarket manager who, unbeknownst to Rosalee, is deeply in love with her. Pete gives her all sorts of advice on how to guard her “carnal treasure”.

On the date, Rosalee says and does everything wrong but Tad is quite impressed by her honesty and unpretentiousness. During the course of the evening Tad realises that despite his wealth and fame, his life is really quite empty and meaningless. When Rosalee doesn’t jump at the chance to get into bed with him, he decides to follow her to West Virginia intending to start a new life. At first Tad just wants a platonic relationship with Rosalee but of coarse ends up falling in love with her. However it doesn’t take Rosalee long to realise that despite his good looks and charm, Tad is a very shallow person, whose lines all come from movies he’s been in.

When Tad is given the movie part he has been desperately wanting he immediately drops his new life to return to California. He wants Rosalee to come with him and this is a decision she has to make with the realisation that Pete also loves her.

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 not really any violence in this movie except in one scene when Pete is watching TV and a soldier is shown dead and bloody.

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 that would scare children in this movie.

Sexual references

There are quite a few sexual references:

• Rosalee’s friend Cathy is often verbalising her desires for Tad’s body.
• Pete tells Rosalee that Tad has probably slept with 15 to 20 women.
• Pete tells Rosalee to guard her ‘carnal treasure’ and how to avoid sleeping with Tad.
• Tad tells Rosalee ‘he wants her goodness to rub off on him’ which she tells Pete about and who says he really wants ‘her arse to rub off on him’.
• Tad tells Rosalee that he just want to be friends but ‘nature wants more’.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity but plenty of scantily clad women and a little sexual activity:

• Tad groping and kissing a woman in a car.
• Tad and Rosalee kissing on a bed and he starts to undo her blouse but stops.
• Pete walks in on Tad sitting on the toilet and Tad covers himself with toilet paper (nothing shown).

Use of substances

• There is a lot of drinking of alcohol in this movie, in the bar, at home, at a restaurant, in a hotel, on a plane.
• Tad smokes
• When Tad comes to Rosalee’s home to take her out, her Dad says to “have her back by dawn and no cocaine.”

Coarse language

There is some coarse language including the following:

• several instances of ‘oh my God’
• ‘arse’
• occasional use of ‘shit’ and ‘shithouse’.

The movie's message

The theme of this movie is that what is on the inside of a person is more important than what’s on the outside.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• honesty
• integrity
• care and concern
• friendship
• selflessness.

Values parents may wish to discourage include:

• One of Tad’s agents thinks Tads’ “drinking, driving, leering, smoking and groping at the same time” is “the coolest thing he’s seen”.
• Deceit
• taking advantage of others.