''About a Boy'' is a 2002
romantic comedy-drama film directed by
Paul Weitz and
Chris Weitz
Christopher John Weitz (born November 30, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his work with his brother Paul on the comedy films '' American Pie'' and '' About a Boy''; the latter earned the Weit ...
, who co-wrote the screenplay with
Peter Hedges
Peter Simpson Hedges (born July 6, 1962) is an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, film director and film producer.
Early life
Hedges was born in West Des Moines, Iowa, where he was raised, the son of Carole (Simpson), a psychotherapis ...
. It is an
adaptation of the 1998
novel of the same name by
Nick Hornby. The film stars
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as both a charming, and vulnerable romantic lead and has since transitioned into a dramatic character actor. Among his numerous a ...
,
Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Caradoc Hoult (born 7 December 1989) is an English actor. His body of work includes supporting work in big-budget mainstream productions and starring roles in independent projects in both the American and the British film industries ...
,
Toni Collette
Toni Collette Galafassi (born Toni Collett; 1 November 1972) is an Australian actress, producer, singer, and songwriter. Known for her work in television and independent films, she has received various accolades throughout her career, inclu ...
, and
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970 ) is an English actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a BAFTA Award.
Weisz began acting in British stage and television in the ...
. The film at times uses double
voice-over
Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...
narration, when the audience hears alternately Will's and Marcus's thoughts.
The film was theatrically released on 26 April 2002 by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
. It was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for
Best Adapted Screenplay. Actors Hugh Grant and Toni Collette were nominated for a
Golden Globe and a
BAFTA Award
The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...
, respectively, for their performances. The film received positive reviews from critics and earned $130.5 million against a $30 million budget.
Plot
Will Freeman lives a carefree lifestyle without any responsibility or commitments, thanks to
royalties left to him by his father's successful Christmas song. Will joins the Single Parents Alone Together (SPAT) community group under the pretense that he is the father to an imaginary child, but instead aims to meet single mothers. Will meets Suzie who he is attracted to but also meets Marcus, the
socially awkward
A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socia ...
son of one of Suzie's friends unexpectedly on a planned play-date. When Will and Suzie take Marcus home, they find Marcus' mother Fiona (who suffers bouts of
depression) has attempted suicide and rush to get her to the hospital in time.
Marcus soon discovers that Will's imaginary son does not exist, and uses it as leverage by blackmailing Will to go out with his mother as he wants to ensure Fiona doesn't get depressed again. Though Will shows no interest in Fiona, he begins to bond with Marcus and ultimately matures as an adult as a result. Will helps Marcus to establish confidence, but this plan soon backfires, and Marcus accidentally reveals that Will is not a parent. Fiona confronts Will and demands an explanation. Will retorts that he is only building confidence in the boy because he is routinely humiliated and
bullied
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an im ...
at school. Though Will promises to cease further contact with Marcus, Fiona recognizes that Will's genuine interest in her son is good for both of them.
Will joins Marcus and Fiona for
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
, giving Marcus a
Mystikal
Michael Lawrence Tyler (born September 22, 1970), better known by his stage name Mystikal, is an American rapper.
Early life and education
Tyler grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana's 12th Ward. His father, who ran a small neighborhood store, d ...
album as well as a portable
CD player
A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or audio ...
. During an exchange with Suzie who knows by now of Will's earlier deception, Marcus stands up for Will, and in turn, also stands up to Fiona's confrontational methods. Will defuses the situation, citing an earlier incident where Marcus accidentally killed a
duck
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...
with his mother's
cottage loaf
A cottage loaf is a traditional type of bread originating in England.
The loaf is characterised by its shape, which is essentially that of two round loaves, one on top of the other, with the upper one being smaller: the shape is similar to that ...
. Marcus invites Will to Christmas dinner, and Will genuinely enjoys his day with Marcus' family. As Marcus develops his first crush at school (Ellie), Will also meets Rachel, who he hits it off with, and for the first time in his dating life, he begins to develop a serious interest in a woman. When Rachel begins to lose interest in Will as he describes his lifestyle, he brings up Marcus, and she responds as she is a single mother and believes Marcus is Will's son. Will fails to correct her, and asks Marcus to pose as his son for a while. Marcus eventually encourages Will to tell the truth, but when Will does so and admits the truth to Rachel, it does not have the effect Will had expected, and the relationship ends.
Fiona's depression returns, and Marcus goes to Will for help. Will, however, is still upset over his break-up and lashes out at Marcus. He soon finds his previous life of self-dependence unfulfilling, missing the company Marcus provided. Will decides to reconcile with Marcus and talks to Fiona about her depression, but then finds out from her that Marcus is due to perform at a school talent show that night, which would ultimately result in him being humiliated for the rest of his school life. As expected, Marcus' performance is greeted with brutal mockery, but Will joins in with a
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
, ultimately saving him from total humiliation.
By the next Christmas, Will and Rachel reconcile, with Will having abandoned his previous lifestyle permanently. Will invites one of his
Amnesty International colleagues to set him up with Fiona, and Marcus and Ellie remain good friends.
Cast
Soundtrack
The soundtrack composed by singer-songwriter
Badly Drawn Boy
Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show ''Sam and his Magic Ball'', which he saw ...
was released on 23 April 2002. The film also included music from ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...
'' by
Keith Strachan and
Matthew Strachan.
;Track listing
# "Exit Stage Right"
# "A Peak You Reach"
# "Something to Talk About"
# "Dead Duck"
# "Above You, Below Me"
# "I love NYE"
# "Silent Sigh"
# "Wet, Wet, Wet"
# "River, Sea, Ocean"
# "S.P.A.T."
# "Rachel's Flat"
# "Walking Out of Stride"
# "File Me Away"
# "A Minor Incident"
# "Delta (Little Boy Blues)"
# "Donna and Blitzen"
Reception
Box office
With a budget of US$30 million, the film grossed $49.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $89.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $130.5 million.
The film made $8.6 million in its opening weekend, finishing fourth at the box office.
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 187 reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus states, "''About a Boy'' benefits tremendously from Hugh Grant's layered performance, as well as a funny, moving story that tugs at the heartstrings without tilting into treacle."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
assigned the film a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
In December 2002, the film was chosen by the
American Film Institute as one of the
ten best movies of the year. ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' declared the film to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings."
''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film
nd hegives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs".
Roger Ebert observed that "the
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource."
The film earned Grant his third Golden Globe nomination, while the
London Film Critics Circle
The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally.
The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards did not convey the full context of the ...
named Grant its Best British Actor and ''
GQ'' honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2002.
"His performance can only be described as revelatory," wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness."
''
The New York Observer
''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'' concluded: "
he film
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
gets most of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words—and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance."
''About a Boy'' also marked a notable change in Grant's boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
''s
Owen Gleiberman took note of Grant's maturation in his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that it "looked good on him."
He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes that used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray a shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed into a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his surface that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into the rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency."
Awards
See also
* ''
About a Boy (TV series)''
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
BBC News 2002: About a Boy storms to top
{{DEFAULTSORT:About A Boy (Film)
2002 films
2002 romantic comedy-drama films
2000s English-language films
American romantic comedy-drama films
British romantic comedy-drama films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films based on British novels
Films based on works by Nick Hornby
Films directed by Chris Weitz
Films directed by Paul Weitz
Films produced by Eric Fellner
Films produced by Robert De Niro
Films produced by Tim Bevan
Films set in London
Films with screenplays by Chris Weitz
Films with screenplays by Paul Weitz
Films about mother–son relationships
StudioCanal films
Working Title Films films
2000s American films
2000s British films