Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that Ginger & Rosa -- a coming-of-age drama set in the early 1960s -- is at times bleak and intense, with material that may be too overwhelming for younger teens and tweens. There's infidelity, parental abandonment, a relationship between a much older man and a girl young enough to be his daughter, depression, alienation -- all set against the backdrop of the early ban-the-bomb movement and the concurrent fear of nuclear devastation. Expect infrequent language (including "f--k" and "bitch") and some scenes in which a teen girl flirts with an older man and he returns her attentions (at one point moaning is heard from their room). There are also loud fights between a couple, a scene in which teen girls prepare to practice kissing (on each other), plenty of era-accurate smoking, and some underage drinking.
Sexual
Content
Some kissing and groping, mostly in the dark. A father figure seduces a teenager, who's fascinated by him. Another teenager hears them moaning. Some allusions to a married man's infidelity. Two girls are shown about to practice kissing.
Violence
A woman slaps a teen. In another scene, protestors are hauled off by cops, a few of them forcefully. Some loud verbal arguments. The film is set in the early 1960s, and there's a pervasive fear of nuclear annihilation. Radio reports and TV newscasts obsess about it, and some clips show the bomb blowing up Hiroshima.
Language
Infrequent use of words including "bitch" and "f--k."
Social
Behavior
The world can be bleak in this film, especially for Ginger, but her innate resilience -- and talent for poetry -- help her come through it. Themes include infidelity, parental abandonment, depression, alienation, and betraying a friendship.
Consumerism
Not applicable
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Plenty of period-accurate smoking, including among teenagers. Also, underage drinking (an of-age young man buys a teen a half-pint of beer).
