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Parents' Guide to

The Hero

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Sweet, soulful story about aging actor has mature content.

Movie R 2017 93 minutes
The Hero Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

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Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Director Brett Haley manages to take an underused subject, i.e. a character over 70, and make a movie that's deeply soulful and sweetly easygoing. A movie like this could easily turn into a dire, hand-wringing affair, full of tears and anguish and button-pushing. But The Hero -- like Haley's own wonderful I'll See You in My Dreams -- is remarkably laid-back, happily open to looseness and exploration. It's warm, funny, and very much in tune with all of its characters, young and old, male and female.

The central May-December relationship could have been troubling, but the movie treats it just right, with a measure of shyness, a measure of questioning, and a measure of distance; each character feels around, rather than assuming a solution. Likewise, the father-daughter relationship seems to respect each character's point of view. No one's feelings are presented as hysterical or unreasonable. And, at the same time, nothing feels forced or overly dramatized; it's a breezy, effortless movie and a good choice for mature moviegoers of all ages.

Movie Details

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