Most Helpful Customer Reviews
63 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What is it all Aboot?, May 13, 2002
This movie is set in contemporary London and its story revolves around the life of playboy Will Freeman (Hugh Grant). Freeman is an independent man who enjoys a leisurely life carved into careful sections. His friends find him desperately lonely and unfulfilled, a notion he entirely disregards. Whilst trying to find creative new ways to meet single women for casual relationships, he meets a boy named Marcus (Nicholas Hoult). Marcus is the misfit at his school, overburdened by his freethinking and chronically depressed mother, Fiona (Toni Collette). Freeman and Marcus forge an unlikely but edifying bond that transposes their generation gap and differences. Culminating in a hilarious school music performance, the two discover new ways to navigate a changing world and terms in which to redefine the meaning of family. Saturated by the amazing music of Badly Drawn Boy, this is an enduring and enjoyable comedy. Hugh Grant's character of the roguish unlikely hero seems ideally suited to him. Collette's performance as a seeming shallow liberal is wonderfully dynamic, bringing depth and heart to the character. The film tackles many social issues, especially problems of male (father-son) relations, from a compelling point of view. It's a picture of modern England that burrows into the largely untapped life of this fascinating country. The horribly undeveloped and unrealistic character of the rebellious teenage girl with whom Marcus becomes smitten is the only place where this film really lacks. Otherwise it is a pleasure to watch.
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Actual Real Film, February 17, 2003
Heartwarming studio chickflick about Hugh Grant bonding with a little boy...this description didn't send me rushing to the cinema, despite the Nick Hornsby brand. But shockingly, About a Boy isn't a standard Hollywood prefab romcom or sentimental twaddle -- it's an actual film, sharply written, evocatively directed, beautifully acted. The caustic British wit immediately sets the film apart from its studio comedy brethren -- its actually, frequently funny. The characters feel real, lived in. The superb dual voiceover is potent rebuke to those still peddling the convential wisdom that vo's are "uncinematic" (if this includes you you're immediately assigned "Election" and "Adaptation"), working comfortably inside our protagonists' heads without any dreaded 'literary' staining, bringing their vibrant inner lives to comic life. So instead of the false life lessons and maudlin sentimentality films of this sort so often trade in, we get a moving, witty story about...okay, yeah...Hugh Grant bonding with a little boy. But that's no reason not to rent it. The widescreen picture is gorgeous (another nice departure from drearily filmed studio comedies) and the disc comes with numerous, lengthy deleted scenes that are virtually all terrific, and well worth viewing.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best films of the year., January 14, 2003
It frightened me, at first, to hear that directors Chris and Paul Weitz, the guys who made "American Pie," were behind the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel. Though Hugh Grant was born to play the self-centered, shallow, immature man urged to grow through his relationship with a young boy in need, I forgot about the occasional moments of warmth in "American Pie" and doubted the Weitzes were capable of conveying the heart and seriousness necessary to make this film. I was wrong. Matching moments of true horror involving attempted suicide at the film's beginning with Grant's continuing snarky, sarcastic voiceover showed that the directors had found the precise balance necessary to make the film work. It's a heartwarming, occasionally edgy film about the human need for others and about how a family - whether one we're born into or one that we create for ourselves - can help us grow. Nicholas Hoult, as Marcus, gives a great performance, and Toni Collette, as his hippie, depressive mother, is Oscar-caliber, but the film belongs to Grant. It's the best work he's ever done.
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