NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN

Jonah is a scruffy twenty-something who lives in a large ramshackled house in Sydney’s inner city that he inherited from his parents and now shares with his two best friends Gus and Stevie with whom he makes a passable living throwing weekly wild house parties.  Money may be tight, but there is plenty of drugs, sex and rock’ n roll.

One night his latest sex partner casually tells him that he has a lump in his ‘privates’ which the Doctor diagnoses the next day as testicular cancer.  The good news is that he can be cured, but the bad news is that the treatment will make him impotent.  And Jonah, a slacker cum hedonist extraordinaire, suddenly develops a desire to father a child whilst he still can. The trouble is that he only has a two week window before his operation, and his sperm is unsuitable for freezing, and more importantly he doesn’t have a steady girlfriend.

The bulk of the tale is Jonah’s hapless quest for a potential mother.  He goes through ex-girlfriends, casual pick-ups, lesbians, single older women etc anyone he can try and persuade. Stevie, ardently anti-children herself, facilitates his search until one day when it suddenly seems like Jonah may have struck lucky, she realises that she wants the job after for herself after all.

This likable Australian romantic comedy works mainly because of the charming performances of the two leads.  Jonah is played by Ryan Kwanten, better known as shirtless Jason Stackhouse in ‘True Blood’ … he keeps his shirt on in this except when he is trying to procreate, and he has traded in his normal debonair matinee idol look for something far more cuddly.  Sarah Snook is a sheer delight as the cool sardonic Stevie that I am so convinced that she is destined for bigger and better things.

Just don’t go expecting any deep observation on the plight of young men with testicular cancer, its not that kind of film. It is however a sweet funny crowd-pleaser movie with a predictable happy ending. 

Not suitable for children, and also certainly not for people on a first date! 

★★★★★★★