Winter’s Tale parents guide

Winter’s Tale Parent Guide

Most disappointed of all will be those who come seeking some deeper meaning from this big screen adaptation.

Overall C

Odds are against the longevity of a romance that springs up between a common thief (Colin Farrell) and a wealthy heiress (Jessica Brown Findlay). Yet the power of this love affair somehow survives more than a hundred years and even spans the universe.

Release date February 14, 2014

Violence C
Sexual Content C+
Profanity B-
Substance Use B

Why is Winter’s Tale rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Winter’s Tale PG-13 for violence and some sensuality.

Run Time: 118 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

If this title has you wondering if Winter’s Tale is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic play, let me assure you that all the scripts share is their name. This film is actually based on a novel by Mark Helprin, which has been turned into a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman. Although the book met with many accolades when it was published in 1983, I suspect the movie will not be so fortunate.

In the film, an orphan named Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is on the run from Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe) and his mob of minions. Adopted by the gang’s leader as a boy, it appears somewhere over the years Peter outgrew his associates’ murderous intentions. That’s not to say the young man’s higher ethics make him a saint. The truth is, he is still a thief—it’s just that now he uses stealth so he can rob without physically ruffling the victim. Meanwhile Pearly’s jilted anger has him placing a bounty on Peter’s head.

While getting out of town (and harm’s way), the fugitive stops to pull off one more job. Unfortunately the opulent home Peter breaks into isn’t as empty as he’d hoped and he bumps into the owner’s beautiful, but dying daughter. Surprisingly Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay) isn’t afraid of him or his gun. Instead she disarms the crook with an invitation to tea. As they exchange chitchat over the steaming brew, Beverly shares her longing for romantic love, and Peter silently swears to steal her heart. Their mutual desire eventually climaxes in a bedroom scene of bare shoulders, naked embraces and breathless sighs.

As the common thread, it is inevitable Peter’s two worlds will intertwine. The only surprise is the stark contrast between the dark violence and light love story. I was expecting a chick flick, not depictions of beatings and weapon fights, death threats and torture. Pearly and his hit men shoot a character (on screen) and poison another. They rip the face off an innocent bystander (not shown) then use his blood as paint. The only relief from this brutality, which also includes ghoulish transformations, comes when Pearly makes an appointment with his boss Lucifer. Will Smith’s portrayal of this figure is strangely comedic—and I’m not sure whether or not that was intentional.

Just when you think that’s enough of a paradox, the whole plot turns on itself and introduces a new storyline set in the present day (2014). If this twist was supposed to tie up some of the loose ends from the 1914 section, it only succeeds in making the entire production into a tangled mess.

And there is another problem. From beginning to end, Winter’s Tale comes across as some sort of religious experience. There are mentions of magic, guardian angels and a mystical horse. There are allegorical references to light. There are depictions of the Devil and his angels. There is a war going on between good and evil. Yet there is never a mention of God (except as an expletive) or heaven. Nor does the presence of a narrator help in clarification. Her intermittent babblings about the greater meaning of life and the universe offer inconsistent and contradictory observations. And though the rhetoric is loaded with sentimentality, it provides nothing insightful or profound.

With an emphasis on the importance of sexual fulfillment, and the notion that overcoming evil is a matter of who has the strongest fists, there is little here to satisfy either those looking for romance or for action. And most disappointed of all will be those who come seeking some deeper meaning from this big screen adaptation.

Directed by Akiva Goldsman. Starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly.. Running time: 118 minutes. Theatrical release February 14, 2014. Updated

Winter’s Tale
Rating & Content Info

Why is Winter’s Tale rated PG-13? Winter’s Tale is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for violence and some sensuality.

Violence: Characters engage in a fistfight, some of them draw knifes and clubs. A character kills another man by clawing at his face (not shown) and then begins drawing a design with the victim’s blood. A character utters threats to kill and torture others. A man breaks into a home and begins to crack open a safe until he is interrupted. Other stolen items are shown. A man is shot on screen. Men engage in a fight: they punch and kick, push and use various weapons. A man is beaten badly and thrown from a bridge into the river far below. Men drown when the ice cracks on a lake. A character is shown with mutilated mouth. Other characters’ face transform into ghoulish images. A horse is knocked down and captured in a net.

Sexual Content: An unmarried man and woman engage in sexual activity during which we see naked backs and shoulders, along with motion and some muffled sounds. A woman disrobes in silhouette, moments later we see her naked from a far distance. A woman disrobes and enters a bathtub, we see her from behind in silhouette. A man is seen without a shirt.

Language: Includes a single scatological term, a Christian expletive and one other term of deity.

Drugs/Alcohol: Characters drink socially. A character is poisoned by a potion added to a drink.

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Winter’s Tale Parents' Guide

This movie deals with religious topics (good versus evil, guardian angels, fallen angels and immortality). It portrays the Devil as a character, yet never mentions God. Why do you think Hollywood films are willing to depict Lucifer, but don’t recognize God as a specific entity?

If you do the math, one of the “mortal” characters in this film is over 100-years-old, yet in the movie this person appears to be about 70 and is still running a complex corporation. (Perhaps this wasn’t a problem with the book, where present time would have been the year the book was published - 1983.) What other “holes” can you find within this movie (or other movies)? Do you think directors and screenwriters are aware of these flaws? Do you think audiences care? When does this kind of lack of attention to plot plausibility become severe enough to ruin a movie?

A character in this movie is suffering from “consumption”, an archaic name for what is now known as tuberculosis. While characters within the film claim the disease is not contagious, that is far from accurate. (Some of the other symptoms and treatments are just as fanciful.) This highly communicable ailment is still a major cause of death in many parts of Africa and Asia. In other places in the world vaccination programs have had great success in controlling this disease. Read more about tuberculosis here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Winter’s Tale movie is June 24, 2014. Here are some details…

Winter’s Tale releases to home video on June 24, 2014.

Related home video titles:

A man falls in love with a woman from an earlier period in history in the movie Somewhere In Time. A wealthy woman falls for a sophisticated burglar in To Catch A Thief.

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