About A Boy: Movie & DVD Review

(Originally published May 8, 2002)

There isn't a special effect or a clone to be found in Paul and Chris Weitz's new film, "About a Boy," but there is a major collision of worlds.

The film, from a script the Weitzes based on Nick Hornby's book, is the story of Will Freeman, a self-absorbed, 38-year-old London bachelor who may look like the innocent boy next door, but who's actually little more than a cold-hearted cad, a man who doesn't think twice about joining a single parents’ support group and tricking unwed mothers into sleeping with him.

With his carefully tousled hair, trendy clothes and ultra-modern apartment--the entirety of which seems to have been chiseled from a refrigerated block of brushed steel--Will is the very definition of chilly English shallowness, a lay-about lout who has never worked a day in his life thanks to the hefty royalties he’s received from his father's one-hit-wonder song, "Santa's Super Sleigh."

As you might expect from anyone who’s favorite word is "brilliant," Will’s life is anything but, a tedious exercise in empty self-indulgence that’s as lacking in substance as the cineplexes are lacking in good movies.

But "About a Boy" changes all that. When a troubled 12-year-old boy named Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) enters Will’s life with a heavy heart and the baggage of a suicidal mother (Toni Collette), Will gets the kick in the pants he needs--and audiences get a good movie in return.

Digging far deeper into the male psyche than they ever did in their breakout movie, "American Pie," the Weitz brothers have made a movie that eschews sentiment and skirts the easy cliché—no small feat these days.

What’s great about their film is how content it is to just observe its characters and allow them their foibles, treating them not as people who exist solely to flesh out a script, but as flesh-and-blood human beings who can't be contained by a script.

On paper, there's nothing about Will that's especially likable, so it’s to Grant’s credit that he makes him a sensitive figure nevertheless worth caring for. It’s a tricky performance that stands as a slick sleight of hand, but Grant, backed by an excellent cast that includes Rachel Weisz as his reluctant girlfriend, breezes through the role, leaning on his considerable charm to find the root of Will’s true potential as he unwittingly matures into the man he must become.

Grade: A-

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Labels: Drama