POLITE SOCIETY

Name: POLITE SOCIETY
Item: POLITE SOCIETY
Author: Gaby Gaduh

"Sister Pride and Prejudice"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

POLITE SOCIETY is an action comedy from Britain about two sisters from a Pakistani Muslim family. Ria is a high school student who attends a martial arts class and longs to be a Hollywood stuntwoman. Her older sister, Lena, has quit her dream of being an artist. Later, Ria becomes upset when Lena starts going out with Salim, a handsome rich young doctor with an overbearing mother. When Lena and Salim get engaged only a month later, Ria is furious that Lena has given up on her dreams. She decides to sabotage the wedding but is surprised when she discovers that the plans Salim and his mother have for Lena are much worse than she imagined.

POLITE SOCIETY is a funny, sometimes hilarious, well-acted movie, but it takes a few crazy twists leading to some outrageous martial arts fights. Also, the movie has a Romantic worldview and is filled with PG-13 foul language. There’s also some other objectionable content. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution. However, the teenage protagonist in POLITE SOCIETY is motivated by the love she has for her older sister.

Content:

(RoRo, FeFe, PC, FRFR, B, C, LLL, VV, S, N, A, D, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong Romantic worldview with some feminist elements (including a comical politically correct comment against “the patriarchy,” though the villain is herself an overbearing matriarch with evil intentions) about teenage girls and young women not giving up on their personal dreams (younger sister dreams of becoming a stuntwoman and is upset when her older sister gives up on her dream to be an artist to marry a rich young doctor), female characters refer to Allah three times and say things like “Allah willing” in Arabic (the Muslim context these is fatalistic, rather than the Christian relationship with the Creator and Savior God), but there are some song lyrics about redemption, the protagonist works to save her beloved older sister from marrying into a rich family with ulterior motives, and a white teenage Christian girl prays briefly to the “Heavenly Father” to give her strength when she has to pose as a man to infiltrate a men’s locker room at a gym where she sees a few naked men because they just took showers (the camera shows upper and rear male nudity in the scene)

Foul Language:

42 obscenities (many “s” words and one “f” word), one strong Jesus profanity, nine light profanities, an obscene gesture to two villains, and some vulgar language

Violence:

Strong martial arts and other fighting with some blood such as teenage protagonist practices martial arts and practices a twirling leap but falls on her face several times, two teenage girls get into a fight in the school and slam each other around, the bigger girl slams the smaller girl into a glass trophy case, martial arts fighting between female protagonist and her older sister’s future and villainous mother-in-law (people are choked at times during the fighting), a character is put to sleep forcibly with chloroform, there’s punching and kicking and karate chops during the fighting, wrestling during the fighting, two sisters get into a long fight (they smash doors and puncture walls and older sister smashes younger sister’s head into a wall photo framed with glass, and gun is fired into the sir several times

Sex:

Implied fornication when woman wakes up alone in her fiancé’s bed, and he re-enters the room, plus some other light sexual references that includes insults, references to female menstruation, comical references to condoms, and references to the suitability of women in terms of having a healthy womb and reproductive system to bear children

Nudity:

Upper and rear male nudity in several scenes, including the scene cited above about the teenage girl posing as a man to infiltrate a men’s locker room at a gym

Alcohol Use:

Brief alcohol use

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Brief smoking in one scene; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Strong miscellaneous immorality includes teenage protagonist is disobedient and disrespectful but sometimes respectful to her parents, teenage protagonist sneaks into a rich family’s home to plant some dirt on the son, teenager protagonist and her two friends kidnap the bride at a wedding to protect her from harm, some lying, villains deceive people, and villains try to kidnap the bride back from the teenage protagonist and her two female chums.

More Detail:

POLITE SOCIETY is an action comedy from Britain about a teenage girl from a Pakistani Muslim family who’s worried about her older sister’s upcoming marriage to a handsome, wealthy Pakistani doctor because she smells something fishy about the man and his overbearing mother. POLITE SOCIETY is a funny, sometimes hilarious, well-acted movie that borrows some things from Jane Austen novels, but it takes a few crazy twists leading to some outrageous martial arts fights, has a Romantic worldview and is filled with PG-13 foul language.

Ria is a high school student who wants to be a stuntwoman and takes martial arts classes. Her older sister, Lena, wanted to be an artist, but she quit art school when she decided she isn’t very good. Now, she just mopes in her room. Even so, Lena tries to encourage Ria in her dream and even helps her make martial arts videos for Ria’s social media channel.

Meanwhile, Ria gets into a major fight at school with a bigger girl. She tries the major kick flip she’s been practicing but falls on her face. Everyone laughs.

Later, Ria becomes upset when Lena starts going out with Salim, a handsome rich young doctor with an overbearing mother. She gets even more upset when it looks like Ria and Salim are falling in love. Then, she gets absolutely furious when they get engaged, and she learns that Salim and his mother are going to leave America and take Lena with them to live in Singapore.

So, Ria decides to sabotage their wedding plans. Then, when she and her two friends fail to find any dirt on Salim, Ria decides to frame him. However, her plan goes awry, and her parents ground her.

Ria gives up and resigns herself to the marriage, though she’s still sad and upset about her sister moving to Singapore. However, she accidentally discovers that the plans Salim and his mother have for Lena are much worse than she imagined. Can she and her friends save her sister from their dastardly plans?

POLITE SOCIETY is a funny, sometimes hilarious, action comedy. Priya Kansara is delightful as the younger sister. Her three friends and their classmates are a hoot. Ritu Arya is great as the older sister. The story takes some crazy, strange twists, however. The strangest one is a scene in the middle where the two sisters get into a terrible fight. The fight is too tough and nearly destroys the comical tone the movie has built up in its first half. For example, the older sister takes her younger sister’s head and smashes it three times into the glass of a wall photo.

POLITE SOCIETY has a strong Romantic worldview with some feminist elements. For example, the movie’s main message is that girls and young women should not give up on their personal dreams. Also, it says that career is more important than getting married, which is not true. That said, the movie sometimes treats these issues in a comical manner. For example, there’s a funny scene where Ria and her two friends get emotionally overwrought about Lena’s situation and shout against “the patriarchy.” In another funny scene, Ria’s father describes the benefits of Lena marrying Salim as if he’s talking about a financial deal or a business contact. The movie’s plot also counteracts these themes by revealing that Salim’s overbearing mother is a domineering matriarch who’s out of control. Ultimately, Ria and her female friends must stop this evil matriarch in order to save Ria’s sister.

Some of the characters in POLITE SOCIETY make references to Allah, the Muslim god. This happens most strongly in a scene where Ria and Lena’s mother visits with her friends in a restaurant. The women are discussing what a wonderful catch Salim will make for one of their daughters. Several times, the women mention the Arabic term for the phrase “God willing” which is fatalism in Islam, unlike the relationship in Christianity. In another scene, however, Ria’s white girlfriend prays briefly to the “Heavenly Father” to give her strength.

Finally, POLITE SOCIETY has slightly more than 40 obscenities, including many “s” words and one “f” word. There’s also one strong Jesus profanity, nine light profanities and some lighter vulgarities. The movie also has an implied sleepover scene between the engaged couple, some lewd dialogue and references to female menstruation. Also, a men’s locker room scene contains some rear male nudity.

All in all, therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

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Quality:

- Content: -2