|
Year
: 2002
Director:
Chris Wietz, Paul Weitz.
Starring:
Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz,
Toni Colette, Nicholas Hoult. |
About
A Boy
The
story centres around Will, a thirtysomething
commitmentaphobe. Will doesn't need to work as
he lives off the royalties of his late fathers
one hit wonder Christmas smash hit (a song that
gets played perennially in shops at Christmas and
a song that he cant stand). He wastes his days
with watching television, shopping and playing
snooker alone. In the evenings he is occupied with
his dating regime, which usually goes well for
a couple of months until the word commitment is
mentioned. Thinking he can increase his circle
of potential conquests, he pretends to be a single
parent and joins a single parent support group
that is made up entirely of single mothers. Will
meets up later with a single mother Suzy, for a
date in the park. Suzy also brings along Marcus,
the teenage son of a friend of hers who is suffering
from Chronic depression. Marcus thinks his mother
needs a boyfriend to help her stave off depression
and see's Will as a perfect candidate, and begins
to follow him home to check him out. Will doesn't
want Marcus hanging around his house, but agrees
to let him in to watch television when Marcus works
out that Will does not have a son and uses its
as blackmail. The pair start to bond and Will attempts
to help Marcus fit in better at school (where
he is often picked on because of his wacky hippy
mother and his duff clothes) by buying him sound
trendy trainers and some new clothes. When Will
meets another single mother, Rachel, he decides
to pass Marcus off as his son to ingratiate himself
with her, all goes very well and they have soon
fallen for each other and everyone is happy. But
Will decides if he wants the relationship to last
he must tell Rachel the truth. Marcus has his own
problems when his mother slips into another bout
of depression. How can Will cope with the emotional
commitment looming on all sides.
Yes
this is a film that does make you feel Christmassy,
even though it's basically a film examining the
nature of changing relationships. Will's unresolved
relationship with his father is a constant theme
throughout the film, as is his feeling towards
his fathers Christmas hit that he has to share
with the world, and also his feeling about Christmas
time itself. Hugh Grant portrays Will from his
limited repertoire of slightly awkward upper middle
class chaps (all be it in this one he is less slightly
awkward than most of his other films), and his
character here, crafted by the canny Nick Hornby,
is much more interesting and three dimensional
than those created for Grant by Richard Curtis.
The story, which could have easily been manufactured
to be over sentimental, is only a bit sentimental
and with some genuinely touching and bravely underplayed
scenes the film manages to transcend the brit rom
com genre that I'm sure the money men would have
been anxious to see.
All
that and it also has a fantastic soundtrack
performed by Britain's number one "Benny from
Crossroads" lookalike
Badly Drawn Boy.
About A Boy is
placed at December 4th on our Films
guaranteed to make you feel Christmassy (UK edition)
Buy
this film and more from our Christmas
DVD Store in association
with Amazon.co.uk
