About a Boy
Studio: Universal Pictures
Website: http://www.about-a-boy.com/
Release Date: 2002-05-17
Cast: Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, Robert De Niro, Nicholas Hoult
Director: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Screenwriter: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, Peter Hedges
WorkNameSort: About a Boy
Our Rating: 2.50
Like “High Fidelity,” About a Boy is based on a slight but effective novel by Nick Hornby that captured the thirtysomething male ethos with surprising accuracy. Unlike “High Fidelity,” “About a Boy” stars Hugh Grant and winds up indulging in insultingly manipulative sentimentality. Superficial Will (Grant) lives a spoiled life thanks to royalty checks from a Christmas song his father wrote years ago. Hoping to meet women interested in meaningless sex, childless Will pretends to be a father at a support group for single parents. Instead, he finds himself teaching an unpopular child, Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), how to blend in at school–against the wishes of Marcus’ suicidal mother, Fiona (Toni Collette). Credit “American Pie” directors Chris and Paul Weitz with trying something different and managing a few charming moments. Debit them for failing to develop their female characters as well as they do Will and Marcus; fully formed in the novel, Fiona here seems a skeleton of a woman, her passions for vegetarianism and social justice smugly mocked and simplistically linked to her depression.
This article appears in May 22-28, 2002.