Alex and Emma

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Entertainment: +3

Content: -2

This light-hearted, romantic comedy is loosely based on Dostoyevskys short story The Gambler. Author Alex Sheldon (Luke Wilson) has a severe case of writers block as he attempts to complete his second novel. He is pressured to finish the book by his publisher (Rob Reiner, also the director) and a couple of Cuban loan sharks who have given him a month to pay his debt. After the tough guys destroy his laptop computer, Alex has to dictate the book and hires stenographer Emma Dinsmore (Kate Hudson). Proper Emma and comical Alex get off to a rough start. Alex dictates a 1920s love story, intertwining made-up places and people with his real-life. Emma questions aspects of his story and helps shape the final version. Truth becomes stranger than fiction as the characters in his novel fall in and out of love while Alex and Emma do the same. The action shifts from the novel, with characters also played by Wilson and Hudson, to real life.

The film has many funny scenes, especially the give and take between writer and stenographer, and at times is touching. It does however have enough negative elements to preclude Preview from giving it a positive rating. In a couple violent scenes, the loan sharks rough up Alex by smashing his apartment with a baseball bat and dangling him over the balcony as a death threat. When the characters in the novel fall in love, a man and woman are shown in various sexual positions, although they are under the covers and no graphic nudity is shown. In another scene, a woman pours hot water onto a mans crotch, and he asks her to blow on it to cool it off. Other than the overt comments, like Alex and Emmas discussion about how a womans breasts should be described in his novel, there are sexual innuendos. The dialog is also marred by exclamatory profanities and crude language.

Preview Reviewer: Bob Nusser
Distributor:
Warner Brothers

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: many (12) mild 1, moderate 11.

Obscene Language: none.

Profanity: many (12) regular 6, exclamatory 9 (OMG, J).

Violence: few times (men break into apartment and smash things with baseball bat, men hold man over balcony and threaten his life).

Sex: few (man and woman fall on bed, man and woman shown in a variety of sexual positions but are covered by sheets).

Nudity: none.

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: several times (man and woman discuss breasts, man tells woman to blow on his crotch, a few sexual innuendos).

Drugs: few times (people shown drinking alcohol at dinner, man drinks beer).

Other: none.

Running Time: 100 minutes.
Intended Audience: teens and up.


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