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Gideon's Daughter

(2006, Rated NR, Drama, Starring Miranda Richardson, Emily Blunt, Bill Nighy)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 15, age appropriate for kids over 16; suggested age 15.

  • Is it any good?

    3.0

  • Common Sense says

    Well-acted, witty dad-daughter BBC drama.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 15–16

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    Though Gideon Warner obsesses about the love and approval of his estranged daughter and the mistakes he's made with her, he is careless and apathetic about most of the other people in his life, except his new girlfriend Stella (an established lover he pretty much takes for granted, and she most agreeably fades away). Stella, for her part, is a quirky and pleasant divorced woman recovering from unbearable tragedy. She announces that she doesn't believe in God, never has, but attends a church choir faithfully in order to feel something. Gideon's daughter has strong environmentalist leanings, but is otherwise rather impenetrable.

  • Violence:

    Minor scuffling, as a bereaved father attacks people on the street. A news report on TV about a string of murders.

  • Sex:

    A lovemaking session, with a buxom, topless woman seen from behind afterwards. Women in low-cut gowns at celebrations. Gideon and his daughter speak separately (she at a school assembly!) of the sexual conquests of a famed French author, and a stand-up comic tells a raunchy joke.

  • Language:

    "Bastard" and "God damn." One especially taboo word from a stand-up comedian.

  • Consumerism:

    Except for British tourism, maybe. There's a discernible effort to keep known products offscreen.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Social imbibing.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Gideon's Daughter

Parents need to know that the narrative begins with what looks like a prostitute visiting a half-naked man in a sex-for-money deal -- but it's a tease; she's a secretary and he's hired her to dictate a memoir. While a teen girl is a key character, this is very much a grown-up drama, about people prominent in London society, romance across (British) social-class lines, and Anglo-specific icons of the last ten years, like the Millennium Dome. If the most your kids know about England is what they get from Harry Potter, then the subtleties will escape them. Subplots concern parents mourning for a dead boy, or the possibility of a child's murder.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the grief of the parents in this movie for their lost children, or the void between Gideon and Natasha. Does he deserve the cold treatment? Or is he overreacting to a typical teen's yearning for independence? Gideon's withdrawal, lack of attention, and tardiness at work are all traits that are amusingly mistaken for signs of brilliance. You might emphasize to young viewers that only in the movies is poor job performance rewarded with being declared a genius.
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