| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
A- |
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Growing up has nothing to do with age.
by Leo - The Lion (movies profile)
Dec 6, 2007
7
of
8 people found this review helpful
In my opinion, all men are islands. Hugh Grant has been considered for the next James Bond according to a certain film magazine. Well, I for one forsee the downfall of James Bond as we know it. The considerations are a black actor, Hugh Grant, Christian Bale, and Jude Law, not to mention another black actor: Will Smith. Yes, you read that right. Apart from black actors--really, Bond being black?--Hugh Grant is probably the worst choice for Bond. But as far as romantic comedies go, he's not that bad.
"About a Boy" is about a childish, whiny, selfish, greedy, miserable young man (Grant) who finds that single parents are best for dating. So he enters into a single parents group, where he proceeds to tell the lie that he has a child. Soon, he is going out with a woman who believes he has a son--who introduces him to a friend's pre-teen, named Marcus. Marcus' mother attempts to commit suicide, and it screws up the kid, so he starts to go over to Grant's home every day after school. Grant eventually admits he has no child, and the woman he had been going out with pretty much dumps him. But Marcus keeps coming over every day. Eventually Grant starts to help Marcus out by trying to help him fit into his school better; he buys him "trainers," CDs, a personal CD player, etc. And then Grant's character meets Rachel (Rachel Weisz), who he proceeds to tell that he has a son, for certain reasons. So eventually Rachel wants to see his son. Trouble. And then Grant gets Marcus to pose as his son while he gets personal with Rachel. Trouble solved. For now.
"About a Boy" is based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Hornby, author of "High Fidelity"--which was turned into a film with John Cusack that took place in Chicago instead of London--and a few other hits. I've never read his work, but I think it's been done justice for the most part.
"About a Boy" is a good comedy, with some funny British humor. It was good, but not great. I enjoyed "Notting Hill" more, to tell you the truth. I think "About a Boy" took quite a long time getting to where it was going. Ranking in at about two hours, that's a bit long for a romantic comedy, especially when the love interest is introduced an hour and nine minutes into the film. The setup itself takes over an hour to establish. Many, many scenes could have been cut to make room for more time after Grant meets Rachel. But instead, the filmmakers take so much time building up to that point, that by the time they finally arrive to the romance part, they have about fifty minutes to deal with a LOT of things that happen. Perhaps that is why the last hour seems so rushed and thrown together compared to the beginning.
But it's still a pretty funny film. I'm not especially fond of Hugh Grant, but his romantic comedies can be pretty good--I really enjoyed "Notting Hill," and I don't like Roberts, either. "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain" was also a good British comedy. And there's no doubting "About a Boy" is good, but it's not great, and a lot of scenes could and should have been cut. Isn't it ironic that I think one of the deleted scenes on the DVD should have been left in the film?
I also recommend: Freaky Friday, Forrest Gump, Riding in Cars with Boys and Angus. |
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