Acceptance
By Melissa Camacho,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Movie about college admissions mixes heart, tough issues.
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What you will—and won't—find in this movie.
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What's the Story?
Based on the popular novel by Susan Coll, ACCEPTANCE follows high school senior Taylor Rockefeller (Mae Whitman) through the tumultuous and stress-filled college admissions process. Talented and eccentric, she has a tough time coping with the pressure that her mother (Joan Cusack) places on her to get into a top-notch university -- and her father's absence from their family life only adds to her distress. As she strives to impress the dean at her dream school, her friend Maya (Deepti Daryanani) struggles to find a school that will support her passions for swimming and poetry without disappointing her Ivy League-oriented parents. And Taylor's former boyfriend, Harry (Jonathan Keltz), goes into overdrive by doing everything he can to get into Harvard, much to his mom's dismay. It definitely isn't an easy time, but the teens slowly learn that while getting accepted by their favorite college is important, they must also look for acceptance from other places -- including within themselves.
Is It Any Good?
Acceptance deftly mixes both comedy and drama in its look at the sometimes-extreme pressures that today's teenagers face when thinking about and applying to college. Although it places much of the blame for this stress on the teens' mostly well-intentioned parents, it does make the point that teens can become so intent on getting admitted into the "right" school that they mistakenly use the college admissions process as a way of defining their self-worth.
The movie successfully threads together a variety of storylines that illustrate some of the difficulties and anxieties that teens face at this stage in their lives -- including divorce, substance abuse, and self-injury. While some of these themes are heavy, the context in which they appear and the humorous and/or heartfelt way they're handled still makes the movie an entertaining choice for teens old enough to handle it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the destructive behavior shown in the movie. Is it believable? Teens: Has anyone you know done similar things? Do you know where you/they can go for help in those situations?
Overall, do the teens in this movie seem realistic to you? What makes them more or less believable than other teen characters in the media?
Teens: Do you plan to go to college? If so, what influences (or influenced) your decision when choosing a school? Do you think this movie is a fair representation of what the admissions process is really like?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: July 27, 2010
- Cast: Joan Cusack, Jonathan Keltz, Mae Whitman
- Director: Sanaa Hamri
- Inclusion Information: Black directors, Pansexual actors
- Studio: Lifetime
- Genre: Comedy
- Run time: 90 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: March 2, 2022
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