M: Catriona Corbett who is the manager of Anglicare's Family Relationship and Early Intervention Services, a former foster care worker, a mother of four and also someone who has just witnessed Hannah Montana the movie. Tell me Catriona, how did you find the film?

C: Mark, I enjoyed the movie, I had no previous knowledge of Hannah Montana. I'd heard the name Miley Cyrus but that was about all. But I enjoyed it as a two-hour ride.
It was fanciful, unrealistic and there was an element of fairy tale in it, but it was fun.

M: What would you say was Hannah biggest problem in the film?

C: She's torn between two personas or two lifestyles - or the two different people that she is. And I do think she is both. She has talent, she wants to perform, she loves it up on stage and she gets into this glamorous lifestyle. She's Hannah there. She also has her life as Miley with her loving and down to earth family and she has to somehow marry the two together and that's the challenge for her in the film.

M: Do you think teens do feel a bit torn between two worlds? Do you think they adopt different personalities according to where they are?

C: I think they learn to because it is the period of their life where their peer group is so important. So they adopt a language and dress, a way of being with their friends, and that does carry back into the home. They're trying to find out who they really are so they're exploring who they are in relation to their friends and they bring that back into the family. But the family sometimes makes a bit of fun of them if they take it to the extreme. So they have to try to work out how far they want to go and work out what they really believe and who they are.

M: Is that something parents should be worried about - that their kids look a bit schizophrenic every now and then?

C: No, I don't think so. I think that is just a part of growing up through their teen years. I can remember dressing in a rather extreme way at that age and my parents just accepted it - 'She's just working out who is she is.' And because there was no fuss made about it, and because it wasn't dangerous, you just work it out. It takes its own course.

M: A lot of parents will be as mystified when their children say 'I really need to see Hannah Montanna.' Is there anything the characters advise that a Christian parent could get behind, that they could talk about with their kids and use in an affirming way?

C: They could point out the cost, the toll it takes on Hannah/Miley to live the two lifestyles - the energy she has to put into keeping the secret. Also the cost on personal relationships, the toll it takes on family life. There is a bit of contextualising there, talk about that with your kids and explore how she might have been able to do it better.

Without wanting to give too much away, let's say for parents, the film ends up well, the boyfriend who turns up in the film is largely respectable, nothing terrible happens that you have to be worried about your young teen or tween seeing. But are there some issues that you were a little uncomfortable about?

C: I think the film is fantasy, it's not real at all, so in that sense that's not what life is like. For a start if you want to be a star and have some talent you have to work really hard. You don't just put a wig on and change your clothes and suddenly your famous. There are a lot of hard yards that go into performing. It's a hard life, there's a cost. But the values that you need to hold onto are the good ones, the values God has given us about loving each other, caring for each other and being respectful of each other.

These are the sorts of things you're going to want to instil long before the crisis?

C: Yes, you've got to store up a bank of close bonds and loving relationships when these sorts of things come into play in your family life. And they will hit, every family gets hit with crises at one stage or another, even with adult children you can face crises. If you've got that background of good strong loving bonds and respectful caring relationships then you can weather the storms together.