Bride Wars

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Bride Wars' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Bride Wars completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 14 January 2009.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Bride Wars 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

Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudson) have been friends for life but their friendship is sorely put to the test when both girls become engaged at the same time and choose the same, sought-after wedding director, Marion St. Claire (Candice Bergen) to arrange their weddings. Unfortunately a booking error is made and both girls have their weddings booked on the same day. When neither of them is willing to change the date (which involves a long wait), they both try to sabotage each other’s special day.

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.

Relationships, marriage

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 some violence in this movie including

• Emma and Liv fight over a gift box
• A woman pushes Emma over for harassing her
• A lot of verbal fighting between Emma and Liv
• Emma and her fiancé argue
• Emma attacks Liv during the wedding ceremony

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 is nothing particularly scary in this movie, but it will probably lack interest for this age group.

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.

There is a lot of uncontrolled anger and nastiness in this film which could disturb children in this age group

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.

Some children over the age of thirteen could be influenced by the nastiness of the two main characters in the film.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• Liv talks about men she’s previously slept with

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including

• Both couples are living together and are seen in bed together.
• At a girls’ night out in a nightclub, there are men dancing in their jocks and one who strips off some of his clothing. Emma and Liv join the dancers and try to outdo each other with sexy dancing.

Use of substances

There is lots of drinking of alcohol in various venues: at home, at parties, in pubs, nightclubs, etc

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including

• Oh my God
• bitch
• arse

The movie's message

Bride Wars is a comedy about two women vying for the best wedding. It could be of interest to some teenage girls but is likely to have little broad appeal. The main message from this movie is that uncompromising attitudes can lead to unhappiness and disaster.
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as

• being self-centred and unwilling to compromise
• using violence and nastiness in an attempt to solve problems and get your own way

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of relationships, friendships and  marriage.