Product Details

• Actors: Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Sharon Small, Madison Cook, Jordan Cook
• Directors: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: June 3, 2003
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (265 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006GEXR
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,511 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #11 in	Video > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Hugh Grant
  #73 in	Video > Art House & International > United Kingdom > Comedy
  #94 in	Video > Comedy > British

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A box-office smash in England, About a Boy went on to charm the world as another fine adaptation (following High Fidelity) of a popular Nick Hornby novel. While High Fidelity transplanted its London charm to Chicago, this irresistible comedy was directed by Americans Chris and Paul Weitz (American Pie) with its British pedigree intact. Better yet, Hugh Grant is perfectly cast as Will, a self-absorbed trust-fund slacker who tries to improve his romantic odds by preying on desperate single mothers. His cynical strategy backfires when he recruits the misfit son (Nicholas Hoult) of a suicidal mother (Toni Collette) to pose as his own son, thus proving his parental prowess to his latest single-mom target (Rachel Weisz). The kid has a warming effect on this ultimate cad, and what could have been a sappy tearjerker turns into a subtle, frequently hilarious portrait of familial quirks and elevated self-esteem. From start to finish, it's a genuine treat. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

In this adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel, Hugh Grant's usual character, the shy and charming English bachelor, gets seriously revised into a kind of media-age Oblomov, Will Freeman, a connoisseur of pop music and old movies. Will bestirs himself only to chase girls whom he has no intention of sticking with. By degrees, this selfish layabout becomes friends with Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), an unhappy twelve-year-old boy whose mother (Toni Collette) is a seriously depressed hippie in feathers. The directors Paul and Chris Weitz-the "American Pie" brothers-have tried hard not to make a tearjerker, and at its best the movie is knowing and tart. But the structure of the story inevitably encourages shamelessness: there's an awful scene in which Will makes a fool of himself, singing "Killing Me Softly" in a school auditorium to save Marcus from performing alone. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What is it all Aboot?, May 13, 2002

By	Eric Anderson (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Actual Real Film, February 17, 2003

By	schapmock (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: About a Boy (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

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.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best films of the year., January 14, 2003

By	Riley McCarthy (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: About a Boy (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

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.