Music and Lyrics

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Music and Lyrics' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Music and Lyrics completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 14 February 2007.

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 Music and Lyrics 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

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is a washed up musician from the 80’s boy band ‘Pop’ who makes his living by appearing at local fairs and sideshows. Still adored by older women, he is also a hero to current pop phenomenon Cora Corman (Hayley Bennett) who wants him to write a song for her. Alex has been separated from his song-writing partner Colin, for fifteen years and is reluctant to take up the job, but his manager Chris Riley (Brad Garrett) persuades him of the financial imperative to do so.  Alex finds a lyricist in the unlikely person of Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), his zany plant lady, who has a natural ability at writing. The partnership turns into a love affair although Sophie is still recovering from a previous failed relationship with Sloan Cates (Campbell Scott).

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.

None of concern

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:

• Alex gets into a fight with Sloan Cates , Sophie’s former lover.
• Women fight each other to get to the front of the stage.

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.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there is one scene in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five:

• The opening of the concert towards the end of the film includes loud noises, and images including flames, which may scare children in this age group.

Over eight

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 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 in this movie which is likely to disturb children in this age group.

Product placement

• Coca cola

Sexual references

• Cora Corman is portrayed as a sex object and is seen performing in very brief clothing with men touching her all over her body. In one provocative dance she lies down and touches her breasts – Sophie later refers to it sarcastically as an ‘orgasm.’
• Alex also dances provocatively with exaggerated, gyrating hips, which sends the women wild – they all want to touch him.
• Sophie tells her older sister, who is madly in love with Alex, that she has slept with him.

Nudity and sexual activity

• Alex and Sophie wake up in bed together, after kissing passionately the night before. They appear to be naked, although nothing is actually shown.

Use of substances

• Drinking of alcohol in a restaurant.
• Alex refers to the fact that he got over his loss of fame by using drugs and alcohol.
• There is a reference to the fact that pop stars take too many drugs.

Coarse language

• Frequent use of ‘Oh my God’
• “Bitch”

The movie's message

Music and Lyrics is an entertaining romantic comedy that will appeal to adolescents..