Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 6 November 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

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 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• 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

Sarah Palfrey (Joan Plowright), recently widowed, decides to move to London to be closer to her daughter and 26 year old grandson. She chooses the Claremont Hotel as her place of residence so she won't be a burden on her family. The Claremont isn't quite what she expected although the other guests are quite interesting, if somewhat nosy, characters. Mrs Palfrey proudly talks of her grandson Desmond to the other guests who are very eager to meet him. Desmond however, doesn't return his grandmother's phone calls and the residents start to wonder if he really exists.

Mrs Palfrey meets a young unemployed writer, Ludovic Meyer (Rupert Friend), who turns out to have a lot in common with her, sharing a love of poetry, music and films. The two become good friends and he agrees to masquerade as her grandson to satisfy the Claremont 's residents' disbeliefs.

Themes

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.

Death of loved ones, Family relationships

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.

None.

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.

There are some scenes in this movie that could disturb children under the age of eight, including the following:

• Mrs Palfrey falls over quite dramatically and hurts her leg
• Mrs Arbuthnot (one of the residents of the Claremont ) collapses and dies
• Mrs Palfrey falls down the steps in front of the hotel
• Mrs Palfrey is shown lying in a hospital bed looking rather shaken. She also goes into a coughing fit.
• Mrs Palfrey eventually dies.

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.

Children aged eight to thirteen could be concerned by some of the above mentioned scenes and by the portrayal of Ludovic's family relationships. Ludovic talks about how his father died too young and that he has a strained relationship with his mother. Mrs Palfrey goes to meet Ludovic's mother who talks of the difficulties of raising him on her own and how disappointed she is at how he's turned out.

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.

Although there is nothing of great concern, some adolescents could be upset by some of the above mentioned scenes in the movie.

Product placement

None

Sexual references

Ludovic mentions that he's “never had so much fun with his clothes on”.

Nudity and sexual activity

Ludovic and his girlfriend Gwendolyn (Zoe Tapper) are shown in bed with no clothes on, embracing passionately. Nothing particularly graphic is shown.

Use of substances

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

• drinking of alcohol in the restaurant
• Ludovic drinks whiskey at home
• Mr Osborne takes Mrs Palfrey to a woman's night at the Masonic Lodge. He drinks a lot and asks Mrs Palfrey to marry him.

Coarse language

The word ‘shit' is used several times in this movie.

The movie's message

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is a moving drama, superbly acted by Joan Plowright and Rupert Friend. However it moves at a slow pace and as such would hold little appeal to children and young adolescents.

The main messages from this movie are to embrace life and to live in the present time that you have.

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

• kindness
• compassion
• respect.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of maintaining relationships with loved ones and that inevitability of people dying.