About A Boy (2002)

ABOUT A BOY (2002)

By Ralph Santini - ***½

The Weitz’s brothers third film, the romantic comedy-drama, “About A Boy” is quite possibly one the better lighthearted movies of this century.  It contains pleasant screenwriting by the directors themselves, and co-developed with Peter Hedges, as well as remarkable performances by Hugh Grant and then 12-year old Nicholas Hoult, both of them especially. I’ve never seen better chemistry like this and I think they really deserve it. They are also surrounded by a terrific supporting cast, including Toni Collette as Hoult’s suicidal but caring mother who sometimes get concerned with her son’s friendship with Grant. 

The story concerns both a lazy man in his late thirties, Will Freeman (Grant) who has nothing to do ever in his life except watch too-much tv, listen to too many records, watch videocassettes/dvds ,etc and a more ambitious 12-year old boy, Marcus Brewer (Hoult) who eventually meets up with Grant after meeting up with, Suzie (Victoria Smurfit), a friend of Marcus’ mother (Collette), whom Will met at a club concerning single parents just to meet women and Grant initially likes at the beginning. Suddenly, Marcus apparently kills a Duck by mistake not knowing that a loaf of bread being already stale and they decide to carefully take him home after being questioned by the zoo security unit whom Grant successfully lies to them as being already dead for longer so as not to scare the rest of the children in the zoo. 

When they later arrive at the house Marcus lives with Fiona, his mother, they find out that she is attempting suicide and later they take her to the hospital in order to save her life. And then a miracle happens when Fiona does survive her suicidal attempt and Marcus decides to befriend Will because he has a special interest in him. But Will doesn’t seem sure at the beginning, until he decides to help Marcus in teaching him how to battle constant bullying at the school he attends. But things however get worse when Marcus is mugged by the bullies, resulting in stolen new pair of shoes and after this Fiona gets suspicious of Marcus’ friendship with Will and it’s not pretty between them. Time passes and Will eventually meets a single mother named Rachel (the cute, sexy Rachel Weisz) while Marcus has a huge crush with a teenage Goth Girl (the very hot Natalia Tena) and eventually it’ll be up to our heroes’ friendship to see whether love conquers all or not. 

This is a good example of the irony within age because the movie shows a sharp difference of maturity between both Will and Marcus. While Will is just in late thirties and all the time being lazy, Marcus seemingly wants to become more and more grown up than ever before. Will can sometimes get very cantankerous when can’t get his way, while Marcus can handle most of the danger concerning his future. But that’s exactly why this light hearted film holds up so well because unlike the traditional rom-coms from around this period, it takes the story very seriously about the chemistry of a immature man and a ready-to-grow-up boy. 

The actress who plays Marcus’ mom, Fiona, Toni Collette, gives a terrific supporting performance as a truly concerned mother who always wants the best for her son. Fiona is a character who knows what is and what is wrong, but at the beginning she is presented as a rather tortured woman who is fed up with life itself but after her recovery becomes more and more concerned about the troubles her son might face. She is even concerned about Marcus listening to hip-hop music, which had it’s strong peak at the time this movie was filmed, after all that happened to every parent who gets concerned with their future and influence on the music. 

“About A Boy” demonstrates that sometimes it not impossible to make a good romantic comedy because it tells a truly realistic story that helps people how to adjust themselves to the life that’s not about a certain individual, but everyone’s. It also contains some of the most memorable motion picture chemistries ever told in the history of new millennium filmmaking. It’s that pleasant.