About A Boy-Movie Review 01/20/2011
Posted by Films to consider in Based on a novel, British, Comedy, Drama, Movies, Romance.trackback
About a Boy (British) 2002
Among other awards and nominations:
Nominated, Best Writing-Adapted Screenplay, Academy Awards
Nominated, Best Motion Picture; Best Actor-Comedy (Grant), Golden Globes
Winner, Best British Actor (Grant), Empire Awards (UK)
Nominated, Best Supporting Actress (Collette), BAFTA Awards
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Nick Hornby
Directed by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz
Starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Nicholas Hoult and Rachel Weisz
A Hugh Grant movie that I really liked. His performance went beyond his usual charmingly amusing and seemed natural and genuine. The addition of Toni Collette and Nicholas Hoult to the cast also had something to do with it.
Will Freeman (Grant) is a single guy who’s living on the royalties from his father’s one-hit Christmas song. All of his friends have settled down and are urging him to do the same but Will still wants to play the field. Coming up with a devious new scheme to meet women, he joins SPAT (Single Parents Alone Together) where he pretends to have a two-year-old son. He inadvertently meets Marcus (Hoult), a 12-year-old boy who is always getting bullied at school. When Marcus’s mother (Collette) tries to commit suicide, Will gets more involved than he wants to.
I would definitely watch this film a second time, which is unusual for a romantic comedy. This film has some more serious moments with the storyline of Marcus and his mother, but along with that there are plenty of very funny scenes.
102 min. Rated PG-13.
FILMS TO CONSIDER 
Sorry. But the review should have been.
“Another stupidly annoying vehicle for Hugh Grant. Don’t bother”
I thought this story had more depth than many of his other ones. I did enjoy it. 🙂