NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN

Australia, 2012, 96 minutes, Colour.
Ryan Kwanten, Sarah Snook, Bojana Novakovic, Ryan Corr, Alice Parkinson.
Directed by Peter Templeman.

Not a classification piece of advice – though it would serve as that as well. No, Jonah, an easygoing, party-hosting, rather hedonistic 35 year old, discovers that he has testicular cancer and the operation will make him unable to father children. So, both in his lifestyle and in his physical condition, he is not suitable for children.

But he does suddenly discover that he really would love to have children. But, to his surprise and dismay, his sperm are not suitable for donating and freezing. He then meets (auditions for) a number of women who could carry his child, especially raising the question with a lesbian couple – but they decide against the proposition. Could there be an opportunity with his former girlfriend (Bojana Novakovic) from whom he is having a six month separation? He is being helped with contacts by his flatmate, Stevie (played with verve by Sarah Snook, whom, many note, looks and acts like American star, Emma Stone) who thinks she has no maternal instinct at all.

Just how wrong we can be when we are self-selfish-focused and not alert to our deeper longings?

So, that’s the story, Jonah becoming more desperate as time is running out (which is aggravated by his devotion to his sister’s children). What happens? Not a miracle, but a rather more down-to-earth realistic ending.

True Blood star, Ryan Kwanten, plays Jonah in an ingenuously earnest way. His appearances in Australian films, Griff the Invisible and Red Hill indicate he has more versatility than he can show in True Blood.

The film offers a light touch preoccupation with deeper values about life and, especially, about being able to create and love children.


1. The title? The usual meaning? As applied to Jonah, his cancer, infertility?

2. A Sydney story? Newtown, suburbia, the streets, the homes? The parties and the raucous street celebrations? Party organisation? The visitors? The police?

3. Sydney, the suburbs, the city, workplaces, restaurants, hospital? Score?

4. The introduction to Jonah, Gus, Stevie? The parties, their organisation? The electricity and the generator, paying the neighbour?

5. Jonah, genial, forlorn, the sexual encounter, the discovery of the cancer, the doctor being frank with Jonah, the explanation, the date for the operation, the effect on Jonah? On Gus? Stevie coming home – and surprised?

6. The paternity theme, Jonah and his strong desire to have a child, the strong child-focus of the film? Sperm donor, the nurse, the impossibility of freezing the sperm? The suggestions for his getting a child? His friends? Pregnancies? The arrangement? The insight into Jonah, his discovering his immaturity, his need for maturing, love for children?

7. Stevie, helping Jonah, Alison and Jennifer and the interview, the awkwardness, the discussions about lesbian couples, about pregnancies? The date with the co-worker, drinking, talking, her not being able to commit?

8. Jonah and Claire, the family, his parents, Claire’s children, his love for them, babysitting them, yearning for a child? Stevie, the babysitting, her lack of interest in children, awkwardness with the baby – but holding it, discovering her maternal instinct?

9. The discussions about the arrangement, the idea, keeping it secret?

10. Stevie, the realisation that she wanted to be a mother, the slip of the tongue, Jonah’s response, her preparing the document, his reading it and not reading it, signing?

11. The attempts for the pregnancy, the tenuous beginnings, counting one to ten, the comic touches, getting more realistic, the effect, the test not positive?

12. Gus, his organising the parties, oblivious? Watching Jonah and Stevie, suspecting something, the plans?

13. The final party? Ava, Jonah’s relationship with her, no contact for six months, the meeting in the restaurant, his inability to tell her the truth? Her coming to the party, her realisation of the truth? The attempt for the pregnancy? The interruption, Jonah and his not being able to go through with it?

14. Stevie, her arrival, upset? Her anger with Jonah, telling him off, saying he was unsuitable to be a parent? Her apology? His chasing the car, the comic effect?

15. The realisation of love on the part of both? Jonah’s comment on Stevie as a mother? On himself as a loving uncle?

16. Going to the hospital, Claire and the family, Gus, his taking the baby out, Stevie and Jonah, their love – and the future?

17. The ability of the screenplay to combine comedy, seriousness, cancer, love?