“Not Suitable for Children” is an enjoyable independent film from Australia that takes the “best friends try to have a child together” storyline, but with a male protagonist wanting to have a child. While predictable and straightforward, “Not Suitable for Children” is a fun and enjoyable film worth checking out!
TITLE: Not Suitable for Children
FILM RELEASE: 2012
DURATION: 96 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 16:9 Widescreen, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: Well Go USA Entertainment
RATED: R (For Sexual Content, Nudity, Language and Brief Drug Use)
Release Date: April 16, 2013
Directed by Peter Templeman
Story by Michael Lucas, Peter Templeman
Screenplay by Michael Lucas
Produced by Jodi Matterson
Executive Producer: Gary Hamilton, Bruna Papandrea, Darren Ashton
Line Producer: Barbara Gibbs
Music by Matteo Zingales
Cinematography by Lachlan Milne
Edited by Matthew Walker
Casting by Nikki Barrett
Production Design by Elizabeth Mary Moore
Art Direction by Amanda Sallybanks
Costume Design by Gypsy Taylor
Starring:
Ryan Kwanten as Jonah
Sarah Snook as Stevie
Ryan Corr as Gus
Bojana Novakovic as Ava
Susan Prior as Marcie
Lewis Fitz -Gerald as Dr. McKenzie
Kathryn Beck as Becky Kincaid
Belinda Bromilow as Claire
Everybody loves Jonah (Ryan Kwanten) – especially the ladies. He’s young, hot, sharing a cool house with his best friends Gus (Ryan Corr) and Stevie (Sarah Snook), and throwing parties that rock AND keep the bills paid.
Then: that awkward moment when your random one-night-stand asks, is that a lump?
Boom. Jonah’s got testicular cancer. His life isn’t at risk, but the impending treatment will leave him completely infertile. Jonah realizes, to everyone’s shock: he wants to be a dad. His attempts at the sperm bank are a failure. His only choice is natural conception. Within the next four weeks. He’s gotta procreate before it’s too late.
What follows is a rousing (get it?) parade of ex-girlfriends, mistaken match-ups, surrogate slip-ups and a whole lot of Baby Daddy Drama. Poor Jonah may be out of options – until he starts listening to his friends AND his heart, and realizes that a perfect candidate might be closer than anyone would think.
From Australian TV director Peter Templeman (“Lockie Leonard”, “Bogan Pride”, “Marx and Venus”) and writer Michael Lewis (“Offspring”) comes the Australian romantic comedy “Not Suitable for Children”.
Released in theaters in Australia in July 2012, the film stars Ryan Kwanten (“True Blood”, “Summerland”, “Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord”), Sarah Snook (“Crystal Jam”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Sisters of War”) and Ryan Corr (“Where the Wild things Are”, “Silversun”, “Packed to the Rafters”).
The film is about three friends who live with each other and have a party business, as they coordinate big parties with DJ’s and everything is going well for the three, until Jonah (portrayed by Ryan Kwanten) finds out that he has testicular cancer.
While Jonah can beat the cancer by removing a testicle, problem is that he will not be able to have children ever again. But having children is what Jonah really wants and with several days before he goes into surgery, he tries to contact his ex-girlfriends, girls he had dated or even strangers to have his child. Stevie (portrayed by Sarah Snook) tries to get her lesbian friends who want children, to find out how big a part that Jonah wants to have in their lives. Meanwhile his business partner Gus (portrayed by Ryan Corr) knows that Jonah is going through a hard time.
Meanwhile, Jonah’s success of convincing girlfriends or other girls to have his child is not going well at all but knowing how badly she had wanted children and the fact that Jonah wants children badly, Stevie decides to help Jonah by engaging in sexual activity in order to get pregnant. But this is more of a mutual agreement to help each other out and one should not expect anything more from each other.
Right after their first time, the two continually have sex and while keeping their sexual liaison a secret, what happens when this mutual agreement becomes more than what they expected?
VIDEO:
“Not Suitable for Children” is presented in 1080p High Definition and presented in 2:35:1. Picture quality is good, but there are times where the picture looks a bit soft. But for the most part, the film looks natural and picture quality is well-saturated.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
As for the audio, “Not Suitable for Children” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby Digital Stereo. The film is primarily dialogue driven with a lot of music. Surround channels are not used all that much throughout the film but primarily during crowd sequences but for a film such as this, the lossless soundtrack is appropriate.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES
“Not Suitable For Children” comes with the following special features:
- Interviews with Cast and Crew – (58:11) Individual interviews with Peter Templeman (director), Ryan Kwanten (Jonah), Ryan Corr (Gus) and Sarah Snook (Stevie).
- Behind the Scenes – (14:23) Interviews with Peter Templeman (director), Ryan Kwanten (Jonah), Ryan Corr (Gus) and Sarah Snook (Stevie) about their characters, working together and more.
- Trailer – (2:23) The theatrical trailer for “Not Suitable for Children”.
There have been a good number of comedies that took on the best friends looking to raise a child together. From the 2010, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston film “The Switch” to 2011’s Jennifer Westfeldt film “Friends with Kids” and in 2012, we have the Australian romantic comedy “Not Suitable for Children”.
Where the wanting to have kids shown on films are usually the female protagonist, “Not Suitable for Children” goes a different route and gives us a single man who wants to have a child, because he will no longer be able to have children after treatment for testicular cancer.
For the character of Jonah (portrayed by “True Blood” actor Ryan Kwanten), his life changes when he is told by his doctor that he has cancer and although treatable, they need to remove a testicle. Because he is in his 20’s, a party guy (who runs parties for a living), he feels that life has dealt him a severe blow of not having any possibility to have children ever.
While his two good friends and business partners, Stevie (portrayed by Sarah Snook) and Gus (portrayed by Ryan Corr) try to give him moral support, they try their best to make him feel positive about his life.
So, he contacts his ex-girlfriend and women he has dated and trying to find a woman he can get pregnant, so he can raise a child. Of course, no woman is not going to take him up on the deal, but his best friend Stevie tries to give him encouraging advice of possibly helping out a lesbian couple, which also doesn’t work out.
Being a very good friend of Jonah for so long, Stevie realizes that she wants to have a kid before she turns 40 and so she tries to have a mutual deal that would help both her and Jonah at the same time. But of course, after continued sex in order to get Stevie pregnant, both start to realize that their may be some feelings that the two have for each other.
While the film is charming and fun, it’s also straightforward and banal. It is predictable and there are not many surprises with this independent film.
As for the Blu-ray release, picture quality is good but a little soft at times, the soundtrack features a good amount of music, so dialogue, music are crystal clear while the surround also takes advantage of the more crowd environments and overall party ambiance. And you get two special features plus a trailer.
Overall, “Not Suitable for Children” is an enjoyable independent film from Australia that takes the “best friends try to have a child together” storyline, but with a male protagonist wanting to have a child. While predictable and straightforward, “Not Suitable for Children” is a fun and enjoyable film worth checking out!
