About
A Boy (2002)
comedy drama
directed
by : Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz
featuring
: Hugh Grant - Nicholas Hoult - Toni Collette - Rachael Weisz - Isabel
Brooke
running
time : 1 hour 40 minutes
London's most frequently eligible bachelor
gets some lessons in growing up from a maladroit 12-year-old boy in this
third big-screen adaptation of a Nick Hornby novel, directed and co-written
by siblings Chris and Paul Weitz of American Pie fame. About A Boy concerns
the parallel coming-of-age stories of the thirtysomething Will (Hugh Grant),
a layabout "serial nice guy" living a posh, carefree lifestyle off his
deceased father's fortune; and the preteen Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), a bright
but awkward youth who's tired of his mom Fiona's (Toni Collette) depressed,
boyfriend-less state. Their paths collide when Will, deciding that single
mothers are the easiest romantic conquests on the dating scene, fabricates
a two-year-old son and joins a group called S.P.A.T. (Single Parents Alone
Together). Marcus is wise to Will's scheme, however, and through some incessant
pestering and blackmail, he contrives for Will to date Fiona. Though Will
doesn't hit it off immediately with either Marcus or his mother, he gradually
begins to open up to the people around him — so much so that
he attracts the attention of another attractive single mom (Rachel Weisz).
A U.S./U.K. co-production of Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Films and Tim Bevan
and Eric Fellner's Working Title (the company responsible for the Grant-related
Four Weddings And A Funeral, and Bridget Jone's Diary), About A Boy was
co-written by What's Eating Gilbert Grape creator Peter Hedges.
A thoroughly pleasant but decidedly
un-romantic comedy boasting another witty star turn from Grant, this Hornby
adaptation belongs to the increasingly common subgenre of hybrid British-American
comedy-dramas that are easy enough going down, but may leave viewers with
a few naggingly unresolved character arcs and motivations. As a funny,
involving tale of redemption for a lazy, spoiled lad edging toward middle
age, About A Boy succeeds. Grant is one of the few actors since Cary Grant
who can remain likeable even as he's committing near-despicable acts of
dishonesty, and directors Chris and Paul have found a perfect foil for
him in the disarmingly guileless Hoult. They've also managed to make their
first genuinely stylish film, shot with grainy aplomb by Remi Adefarasin.
But their script, written with Hedges, leaves something to be desired in
its romantic half. By the time About A Boy reveals the charming but ineffectual
love interest Weisz, audiences may be long past the point of caring if,
when, or with whom its cad of a protagonist is going to settle down. It
doesn't help that the luminous Collette, though saddled with a frump of
a role, walks off with every scene she's in, and has unlimited depth and
chemistry with Grant. Though the Weitz brothers have proven that they have
heart to spare when it comes to their lovelorn heroes American Pie proved
as much ultimately, they're not as democratic when it comes to some of
their supporting characters, and engaging as it is, About A Boy can't help
but suffer as a result.