About a Boy (Full Screen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: About a Boy
Review: After viewing the film, About a Boy, the song "Killing Me Softly" is bound to take on new meaning. Hugh Grant's character, Chase, is a low life heir who has nothing better to do with his time than shop and watch television. In the beginning of the film, Chase goes on a number of dates, which all end in a comical matter. However, all of his relationships are meaningless until he meets a single mother and her son. Being the self-centered man that he is, he is drawn to her motherly qualities. When this woman breaks up with him, he decides to go to a meeting for single parents, while pretending he is a single father. While there, he meets a woman who has a single daughter and makes a date with her. When he arrives at her house there is another young boy there whom she is babysitting.
The boy soon discovers that Chase has no children and threatens to tell the woman if Chase doesn't spend time with him. Not knowing what to do, Chase agrees. Meanwhile, Chase and the other woman break up, Chase tries to let the boy go, but the boy is persistent in arriving at his house everyday after school. As their relationship develops, Chase helps the boy get through all his teenage problems, from girls, to his suicidal mother. The outcome of their relationship leads to a hilarious ending, which would make anyone laugh, whether having seen the movie before or not. At first I was thrown, although amused, by his character's ignorance but by the end of film you couldn't help but love his character.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent. Really Exceptional.
Review: Will is not exactly what most women would consider the Catch of the Week. Sure, he's charming, devilishly handsome and terribly winsome when he wants to be, but. . .well, he's never at any time in his life held a job, content to live off the royalty's of his dad's one hit song; he cares only for himself and is perfectly pleased, even proud, to be shallow and without any hidden depths; and even if all this is not a deterent, the relationship will last no longer than two months at the most, and it will revolve mostly around sex.

Marcus is. . .well. . .the opposite. He's a very sweet child, but not smooth or cool to say the least, and sweetness doesn't really matter terribly in the junior high. Also, Marcus cares almost too much. His life is his Mom and his Mom is unraveling. Marcus finds himself stuck. He has to be the man of the house, and he has to hold his fragile family together because his mother is just not up to the task. Lately, she's been crying a lot. . .even in the mornings, and she's never cried in the mornings before. This occupies Marcus' thoughts more than school or reputation or anything else. It influences his behavior, making him an even easier target for the cruel schoolyard crowd.

Will and Marcus find their lives suddenly intersecting. This is the basis for the newest adaptation of a Nick Hornby ("High Fidelity") novel, entitled "About a Boy." And it is excellent. Will, played perfectly by Hugh Grant, is perhaps even more hopeless than Rob Gordon, John Cusack's character from "High Fidelity." Marcus is played by newcomer Nicholas Hoult, who is a true find. Casting is a major factor in films with large child roles, but Nicholas is absolutely perfect as Marcus. The rest of the cast is well-chosen as well, but the film really comes down to Will and Marcus and the smart screenplay--and these three elements make it a five-star film.

Will, always the commitment-phobic playboy, discovers the world of single mothers, which he sees as the Holy Grail of Bachelorhood. What could be the downside? These women are emotionally scarred, hungry for physical affection and too reluctant to pursue any relationship for too long because of their children. Brilliant! To meet these beauties, Will shows up at a meeting of SPAT--Single Parents, Alone Together. To join up, he invents a 2-year-old in his own life who, naturally, is always with his mother whenever the opportunity to meet him shows up. Through the group, Will finds himself paired with Marcus, who needs somebody to lean on as his mother is spiraling out of control. Before long, Will's life starts to find something it's never really had before: Meaning. And Marcus finds his world expanding and himself growing up as he finds someone who cares about him other than just his mum.

Bottom line: "About a Boy" is very funny, poignant and meaningful. Also, the direction and cinematography do nothing but enhance the plotline. . .they are right-on as well, and do not detract as so often is the case today. The characters are worth caring about and the plot is enveloping. The soundtrack is very well done by Badly Drawn Boy. "About a Boy" is one of those films that hits high marks on all levels, and it can actually maybe even benefit the viewer to see it. I have nothing bad I can say about the film. Perhaps I can't even articulate the good--the excellent--points of this movie here. Just watch it. It's very much worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: "No Man is an Island"
Review: This is one of my favorite movies, it was so heart warming, I truly loved it, it just makes you happy inside to watch this film. Hugh Grant does such a great job as a pseudo- father figure...wow, just go out and rent it now