Parents' Guide to Six Minutes to Midnight

Parents need to know that Six Minutes to Midnight is a gripping British thriller about the buildup to World War II, and it includes gun violence, fighting, and occasional discriminatory language. The sense of WWII on the horizon adds a profound yet foreboding element throughout. Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard), a new teacher at an all-girls boarding school -- whose headmistress is played by Judi Dench -- strives to uncover the truth about a Nazi plot happening at the school. The movie is very much on the side of Miller -- who is portrayed as courageous -- and there is a clear distinction between right and wrong, as Nazi collaboration is taken to be the dangerous endeavor it was. But the merits of Nazism are discussed, though mainly to display the naivety of those who saw it as just a means of feeling proud of where you come from, perhaps misunderstanding the dangers that lay within. The violence is frequent: There are gunshots and murders, and physical fights between characters. But it never becomes too graphic in its depiction. The language is mild, though Jewish people, and Germans, are described and discussed in discriminatory ways. Set in 1939, the film depicts a bygone era. The girls at the boarding school are taught how to walk "properly," and a number of the characters smoke. There is a suicide reference: A character distastefully claims that a man wouldn't be brave enough to kill himself.

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