Parents' Guide to

A Feast at Midnight

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Boarding school comedy with bullying, strong messages.

Movie PG 2005 102 minutes
A Feast at Midnight Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 18+

Based on 1 parent review

age 18+

Why 18 and up?

I know, 18 and up sounds insane for this movie. I have a reason. There is one scene where the girl is in the bath and when the kids try to look at her one can rather clearly see her chest through the bubbles, there is little left to the imagination. After this scene, they constantly refer to her by a derogative term that refers to her chest. That first part--what the viewer sees--is why I can't in good conscience mark this as for kids. What were they thinking? And how, honestly, did Common Sense miss this, and the derogative term? Further, there is a scene where Christopher Lee, who is smitten with the old nurse and she him, is hit in the groin by a cricket ball. She then--this time nothing is shown--opens his pants up and makes an exclamation that could be taken as innuendo. Finally, the movie is a waste of time at any rate. Boring story--could have been good, but ruined with the above material and the script. We're always on the look out for good movies. I'm not too persnickety if there is some swearing and violence (depending on ages of course), but again, this kind of thing, with the bath, that I've noted in this review, simply should not be in a kids' movie. We finally just gave up on it, never finishing it. We kept thinking, "What's going to come next that we don't want to see or hear?"

This title has:

Too much sex

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

Boarding school stories like this one are always fascinating: adolescent kids living together and studying together and finding ways to break the rules. Part of the reason the Harry Potter series is so compelling is that it takes place at the most magical (literally) boarding school ever. Dryden Park is no Hogwarts, but the "types" are still there: the Draco-like bully; the Snape-like teacher who takes everything way too seriously; the academic know-it-all; and the misfit protagonist who longs to fit in to an otherwise closed social circle.

The best part of story is all the cooking sequences. It's like Big Night for kids. Magnus' ability to see pancakes while his friends only see milk, eggs, and flour is impressive, and it's amusing to follow the secret group of young chefs as they find more and more elaborate recipes to tackle, culminating in an all-out party for the school's one young woman -- Raptor's adolescent daughter. For a foodie-approved new-kid-in-school story arc, check out this harmless and sweet family movie.

Movie Details

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