MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL (2008)

MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL is a romantic comedy with gross-out humour. The story is about a man who is a specialist at giving women such a bad date that they rebound back to the last person they dated. He is hired by his best friend to date the woman who has just dumped him but in performing his job the specialist finds himself both falling in love and questioning the way he treats women. This work, which is the DVD release of an extended version of the film, was passed ‘18’ for very strong language, strong sex references and nudity. It includes material that was cut (for category) from the ‘15’ rated UK theatrical version.

The BBFC Guidelines at ‘15’ state that ‘there may be frequent use of strong language (e.g. 'fuck') but the strongest terms (e.g. ‘the c-word’) will be acceptable only where justified by the context. Continued aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable’. There are three uses of very strong language in this film, two of which are very clear and one that is much less discernible. However, although none of the uses are aggressively delivered or directed, the first occurs very early in the work, before the viewer can get to grips with the plot and before the characters have become established. As such it is best placed at ‘18’ and indeed the distributor chose to remove that particular use of the term in order to secure a ‘15’ classification category for the UK theatrical release of the film. There are over forty uses of strong language in the film.

The Guidelines at ‘15’ go on to state that ‘Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour’. Although much of the material can be contained at ‘15’, some of the verbal sex references in this work, which were cut from the ‘15’ rated theatrical UK release, are very strong. They reflect sexual activity more commonly associated with hard core sex works that are inappropriate for 15 year olds and are best placed at the adult classification category.

MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL also includes scenes of soft drug use, mild violence and breast nudity.