Cinematography:
Remi AdefarasinComposer:
Damon GoughCast:
Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Sharon Small, Toni Collette, Natalia Tena, Peter McNicholl, Chris Webster, Isabel Brook, Bethany Muir, Jenny Galloway (more)VOD (1)
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Growing up has nothing to do with age. In this fine adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel, Hugh Grant plays Will, a 38-year old Londoner living a bachelor lifestyle on the back of royalties earned from a Christmas song penned by his dad years earlier. A serial womaniser, he spends his days lazing around his designer pad watching TV, and then comes up with the idea of attending a single parents group as a new way to pick up women. There he invents a two-year old son for himself, and it all results in his encountering lonely, bullied schoolboy Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) and his depressive, music therapist mother (Toni Collette). Marcus soon learns that Will has been lying and so blackmails him into letting him hang out at his place and watch afternoon telly. However, what starts out as an uneasy quiz show watching alliance inevitably turns into a friendship of sorts. (Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (7)
The English really know how to do this. A lot of the motives are admittedly far-fetched and hard to believe, but its coolness is not something you’ll find anywhere else. The actors are amazing (especially the incredibly likeable Grant, whose picture I'd probably hang in my bathroom instead of a mirror if I were a woman), the narrative manages to come up with a witty and offbeat approach, and I haven't seen chemistry between characters work this well in a long time. 4* and a bit.
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It's interesting and at times quite amusing :)) to watch Hugh Grant's involuntary transformation from a comfortable, indifferent, and totally anti-social loser to a sensitive and selfless, hmm... let's say "gentleman". The Weitz brothers surprised me personally quite a bit, as I have them associated with American Pie, but they earned my notice with this smart, likable, and not overly sweet comedy (as is unfortunately often the case with such films). While it may not be as good as Love Actually, About a Boy still ranks quite high in the imaginary rankings of romantic comedies.
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A very nice and pleasant surprise in the form of a conservative but observable and intelligent comedy about a lone hunter of girls' hearts and his gradual enlightenment through a boy's eyes. Hornby's cheerful poetics do a lot, there are essentially no awkward and kitschy moments, but the climax of the film is a perfect model of screenwriting chastity and cleverness. At his core, Hugh Grant's character is a fairly accurate and sensitive caricature of a man/hunter, and the other characters continue in a similarly believable spirit. A pleasurable addition to the film is the excellent music and very unobtrusive situational humor. Although I don't like Grant or the romantic comedy genre, About a Boy is a pretty rare symbiosis of heartfelt moments and satirical smirks. Very British, and this pleases me.
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An excellently functional gem with a typically embellished sense of humor that clearly and loudly exclaims “I'm British!”, light, natural, and with an utter absence of sentiment. The brutally restrained dialogues and Hugh Grant’s brilliant performance were a pleasant surprise, it’s the first time I saw him not overflowing with awkwardness. The whole does not stumble – believe it or not – even once. Everything is topped off by an ending that is just as sharp and strong as the beginning. There are polished scenes that may not necessarily be explicitly funny, but it will be difficult to refrain from smiling at them. A small, yet entirely heartwarming affair.
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The character of Will is brilliant in every way, especially his thoughts. Gradually, though, he lapses into the dramatic side, which I found a bit stifling at times. For some of the supporting characters, I'd happily (and very gladly) change actors. In my book Will is worth the entire 3.5 stars for the film as a whole.
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