Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great Light Entertainment!
This is a really entertaining if slightly lightweight film. Good story line, wonderful characters, witty dialogue and excellent acting throughout. In fact all the main characters give wonderful performances-none more then Hugh Grant who was an actor I really didn't care much for until recently. He is superb as the spoilt likeable rogue who is the centrepiece of the movie. He's inherited mountains of money from his father who happened to have a fluke Christmas hit in the 50's. The substantial royalty acts as both a blessing and a curse as this journey of discovery takes him from being someone who has brief romances, never has to work, has all the latest gadgets and fashion accessories and of course lives a complete live of leisure. Yet he soon comes to realise that his life is pretty shallow-there's nothing interesting about him, he may as well be a handsome cardboard caracuture. He discovers that single mothers are a great source of romance and it is here he eventually discovers the other lead-the boy Marcus. This boy lives with his closetted, veggie, depressed hippy Mom played by the amazing Toni Colette. Grant pretends to have a son but Marcus discovers his secret and sort of inflicts himself on Grant. You see both characters need each other but obviously in very different ways.
This is a great piece of light entertainment-some of the scenes are hilarious and the dialogue is generally sharp, witty and yet cringe-inducing at the same time. Like another film based on Nick Hornby's writing High Fidelity-some of About A Boy's funniest moments come through the characters expressing their thoughts in a monologue. This film kept me entertained throughout-and even the duller moments you still have the stupendous soundtrack composed by Badly Drawn Boy to enjoy.
Rating: - What is it all Aboot?
This movie is set in contemporary London and its story revolves around the life of playboy Will Freeman (Hugh Grant). Freeman is an independent man who enjoys a leisurely life carved into careful sections. His friends find him desperately lonely and unfulfilled, a notion he entirely disregards. Whilst trying to find creative new ways to meet single women for casual relationships, he meets a boy named Marcus (Nicholas Hoult). Marcus is the misfit at his school, overburdened by his freethinking and chronically depressed mother, Fiona (Toni Collette). Freeman and Marcus forge an unlikely but edifying bond that transposes their generation gap and differences. Culminating in a hilarious school music performance, the two discover new ways to navigate a changing world and terms in which to redefine the meaning of family.Saturated by the amazing music of Badly Drawn Boy, this is an enduring and enjoyable comedy. Hugh Grant's character of the roguish unlikely hero seems ideally suited to him. Collette's performance as a seeming shallow liberal is wonderfully dynamic, bringing depth and heart to the character. The film tackles many social issues, especially problems of male (father-son) relations, from a compelling point of view. It's a picture of modern England that burrows into the largely untapped life of this fascinating country. The horribly undeveloped and unrealistic character of the rebellious teenage girl with whom Marcus becomes smitten is the only place where this film really lacks. Otherwise it is a pleasure to watch.
Rating:  - All grown up
If sibling directors Paul and Chris Weitz, best known for the slapstick teen comedy AMERICAN PIE, were looking to establish themselves as more mature filmmakers, they succeeded handily with this adaptation of UK author Nick (High Fidelity) Hornby's 1998 novel of the same title. Working from their own excellent screenplay, co-written with Peter Hedges, they chronicle the belated coming-of-age of a very immature man who learns some important life lessons from a troubled young boy. Stylish, independently wealthy Londoner Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) has the financial security to do nothing but date indiscriminately, and discovers dating insecure single mothers allows him to ease in and out of relationships unscathed by drama. So he sets about meeting more of them at a single-parents group. Needless to say, one of the children he meets, Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), gets under his skin with a combination of boyish charm and an undeniable need to be loved. The film takes these two friends through experiences that are both hilarious and heartbreaking: Will buys Marcus some hip new trainers (Brit-speak for sneakers), but what can he do when the next day the kids at Marcus's rough school beat him up and steal them? Marcus's wreck of a mother, Fiona (Toni Collette), lonely and suicidal, doesn't quite know what to make of this oddball friendship. Fiona could easily be a ... drip, but Collette effectively evokes the desperation of a person who feels truly alone in the world. Bursting with (but not overburdened by) the pop culture references that are the trademark of both Hornby's fiction and the Weitz brothers' films, this wickedly funny and surprisingly sweet film may be the perfect star vehicle for Grant. He's full of piss and vinegar and has at long last set aside the wobbly, stammering persona best left at FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.
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