About A Boy (DVD)

...this intelligent, well paced story about the coming of age of a man and a boy, told with humour, care and not too much sentiment.

From the title we know pretty much who this film is about.. or do we? You see it soon becomes clear that there are two contenders for the role of 'boy' in this film.

~~~~~~~~~~ Boy number 1 ~~~~~~~~~~

First, there's the central protagonist Will Freeman (Hugh Grant). Despite ...
...dates a single mother, who, about the time he's preparing his "I'm sorry but..." speech, does the unthinkable - and dumps him first, whilst appologizing profusely and assuring him that he really is a lovely guy. Guilt free - commitment free relationships with attractive single women? Has Will discovered an untapped goldmine of potential? Well, we're about to find out. His quest leads him to S.P.A.T (Single Parents Alone Together) a tangle ... more

Hugh Grant stars in this intelligent, well paced story about the coming of age of a man and a boy, told with humour, care and not too much sentiment.

From the title we know pretty much who this film is about.. or do we? You see it soon becomes clear that there are two contenders for the role of 'boy' in this film.

~~~~~~~~~~ Boy number 1 ~~~~~~~~~~

First, there's the central protagonist Will Freeman (Hugh Grant). Despite being 38, Will lives in something of a perpetual neverland where he exists free from the mundane pressures of work, household chores, family life and commitment (thanks to the never-ending stream of royalties of his father's festive one hit wonder 'Santa's Super Sleigh'). He fills his free time (being, all his time) dividing his life into manageable units such as shopping, having his hair 're-ruffled' in trendy salons, watching TV in his 'ideal' bachelor pad, eating out for lunch and chasing, dating and breaking the hearts of as many stray single ladies as happen to fall fortuitously across his path. He may be a man in the technical sense of the word, but his life remains, in terms of meaning, a blank page.

We get the immediate impression that he's never had the need, desire and perhaps opportunity to grow up in the way that those of us who face the daily grind of adult life have to and so he remains stuck in a perpetual self-centered childlike state of emotional arrested development. Unfortunately for most single females he encounters it's his dashing good looks, flashy sports car and bottomless bank balance which catch their attention first - and frankly anyone who can't immediately see the inane shallowness of his existence is probably being willfully deceived (get it?) and therefore deserves the inevitable "I'm sorry but this really isn't working out" (aka "I'm bored now") break up over dinner.

Will simply sees these uncomfortable moments as an unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of a hedonistic lifestyle purged of all forms of emotional commitment. Until one day he dates a single mother, who, about the time he's preparing his "I'm sorry but..." speech, does the unthinkable - and dumps him first, whilst appologizing profusely and assuring him that he really is a lovely guy. Guilt free - commitment free relationships with attractive single women? Has Will discovered an untapped goldmine of potential? Well, we're about to find out. His quest leads him to S.P.A.T (Single Parents Alone Together) a tangle of lies about a fictions son called Ned, a manically depressed hippie and her fashionally challenged son, Marcus.

~~~~~~~~~~ Boy number 2 ~~~~~~~~~~

And so we meet the second contender for the title of the film. Marcus is a 12 year old boy who isn't coping with life awfully well. He's a social misfit, who gets bullied at school and smothered at home, oh and he has a haircut that would make a grown hairdresser cry. When he returns home one day to find his mother unconscious after a failed suicide attempt he decides to invite himself into Will's life in an active effort to 'increase backup' should things go awry on the home front again. He's also scared of loosing his mother, and disappointing her, so he seeks solace in the unfettered company of Will who reluctantly lets him in to his flat (and so by default, his life).

And so, in one way or another Will's previously hollow and meaningless life becomes 'about a boy' and through that boy his life becomes about a whole lot of other things that he may never have discovered without the boy. It's a journey of self discovery and illumination - the crux of which hangs on his misjudged premise that 'Every man is an island'.

This is probably Hugh Grants strongest role to date, and much of the strength of his performance lies in his sheer naturalness and ease with which he occupies the character. There's none of the awkward, floppy haired, foppish social mishaps of his Four Weddings, Notting Hill bubmbling nice guy cliche here, nor even the (decidedly more fun) menace and dastardly dramatics of his womanizing villain Daniel Cleaver in the Bridget Jones films - this time Grant has a character who can't hide so easily behind the theatrical extremes of stereotypes. Yes it could be argued that Will is a stereotype of sorts, being the young, free, single, rich bachelor, on the prowl for women and with a very low commitment threshold. But, instead of previous roles where Grants character has assumed a certain set of characteristics from the word go, and the rest of the film has simply been the outworking of those characteristics in various, comic settings, in 'About A Boy' Grant starts off in the role of a societal cliche but his journey goes inwards, and develops as Will responds to his own character, and not just his surroundings. Yes external characters affect his desire and ability to change, but it's the way that Will responds to these changes which makes this part inherently more interesting than anything else Grant has done to date.

Whether it's good acting or good casting (I expect it's a combination of both) but Grant seems to inhabit the character of Will effortlessly and naturally in a way that is immediately endearing to the viewer, drawing us into his bizarre, vacuous bachelor world.

~~~~~~~~~~ When is a rom-com not a rom-com? ~~~~~~~~~~

What gives this film a sharper edge over the London-based, Cutis-ian romantic comedies of past, is that Will's character is not merely driven by external factors, namely the 'perfect woman', but by the internal struggles and challenges he faces in coming to terms with his own life, loneliness and the fact that at 38 he lives a life devoid of meaning, alone on his island in an emotional vacuum . In your average romantic comedy dramatic tension is created by tying in the central characters fate (future happiness etc) irrevocably with the leading lady (or man). She or he becomes the raison de ter of the central character, and inevitably what keeps us interested until the final, breathless declaration of undying love is the possibility that our hero or heroine may be destined to suffer a half life of misery if they fail to 'bag their babe' in the final scene.

What makes this film different is that all the dramatic potential is wound up inside the head and heart of our leading man, almost to the point at which external factors remain just that, external to the central story. Yes we want him to get the girl and sort his life out, but they are just the outcomes, the strength of this film is that we become interested enough in the process, that we find ourselves less concerned with the 'happy ever after' ending. The issue that the film deals with (quite successfully in my book) is the premise that if you're not truly content within yourself you'll never be truly content with anyone else. Of course most romantic films use the opposite logic to create the dramatic interest, 'you'll never be truly happy in yourself unless you find the perfect person' - which is a pretty depressing prospect for most of us normal people (my wife and I make each other happy, precisely because we're happy in ourselves first - if either of us were intrinsically dependant on the other for our happiness we'd be miserable and insecure most of the time!). And it's much harder work to get your viewer interested in the development of a character, but if you can, the result can be far more rewarding. At the end of a good rom-com I feel like I've watched a great story with a happy ending, at the end of this film I felt as though I'd got to know someone who I quite liked. Not as dramatic a conclusion, but probably a more tenacious feeling which will continue to intrigue me long after I've forgotten the nuances of the plot.

And let's face it, with films, as in life, it's the characters we remember. Even though I've forgotten most of the plot of 'The Silence of the Lambs' I can remember Hannibal Lecter as clear as day. Again I've forgotten much of the intricacies of the plot of 'Casablanca', but I still feel like I know Rick Blaine and even from the plot-frenzy that is 'The Usual suspects' it's Verbal Kint character which stays with me, regardless of who did what and who was who. And although 'About A Boy' isn't in quite the same league as these films (or characters therein) it's the placement of a character drama in the disarming context of a rom-com that I enjoyed here.

And yes, Will's transition from self-centered, emotionally inept bachelor to self-aware, emotionally mature homemaker could be called formulaic, but that alone isn't necessarily a bad thing. Film critics (myself included) are all too quick to lambaste anything we suspect of following a set formula or pattern when it comes to plot. But there's a reason that plot structure often follows a set pattern, and that is our innate preference for order and familiarity. I'm less bothered that Wills character develops in a familiar pattern of 'self discovery' and more bothered about how this transition is handled within the limitations of it's structure. And in my opinion it's handled very well. It's familiar without being derivative, amusing without being trite and touching without resorting to gratuitous excessive displays of emotion or heart wrenching plot twists.

~~~~~~~~~~ A badly drawn (and acted) boy ~~~~~~~~~~

My chief problem with the film lies with the miscast, rather pivotal role of Marcus, played, unfortunately by Nicholas Hoult. In a film this good, with a script based on a best selling book and an excellent performance from Grant, it's a crying shame and an indictment on British cinema that they couldn't find anyone better to play this crucial role. And I'm laying the blame firmly at the feet of the casting director and the director here, Nicholas performed, by all appearances, to the best of his ability, sadly though he was out of his depth in a role that demanded a natural unassuming presence - and not a school play rendition of lines. And I think that the problem could be the fact that the writers and directors of the film are American. Meaning, that they probably have little idea how an English kid of Marcus' age and social setting 'should' act. But whoever's fault it is the results are dire. His acting is static and forced, and he seems far too self conscious of his part throughout the film, which puts the audience on edge too. I wanted to like him, really I did. But before long his flat uninspired delivery of lines really began to grate. Why can't we find British actors good enough to play Southern (as in South of Birmingham) kids convincingly for mainstream cinema? The 'Harry Potter' series is another current example of teenage amateur dramatics you'd expect to see in a children's TV drama, although it's perhaps less conspicuous in a film where the plot is the central protagonist. (A notable British exception seems to be Northern kids, who can out act their Southern counterparts ten to one - see 'Billy Elliot'). But here it is unforgivable as so much rests on the believability of Marcus' character and ultimately his performance detracted from my ability to enjoy the film.

And to make matters worse, the kid spend almost the entire film with a haircut that make him look like an extra from 'Village of the damned' and eyebrows that make him look like the estranged offspring of Dr Spock. And they wonder why he gets bullied at school? Why Will didn't take him to the hairdressers instead of buying him new trainers is a mystery I'll probably have to read the book to discover (did Nick Hornby really intend his character to look so freakish?). Someone in makeup was having a very bad day and unfortunately the look stuck, making Marcus' character even more difficult to like.

But perhaps that's part of the effect. Marcus isn't the cute little kid who enters the adult world and turns it upside down with his naive assumptions about the goodness of humanity and the unassailable power of love. He is quite obnoxious, stubborn and genuinely annoying at times, and deliberately so. Will doesn't instantly 'fall in love' with Marcus. He grows a curious affection over time, and ends up feeling something protective towards him and eventually admiration for Marcus' determination to follow his convictions (despite the inevitable consequences). And it's the slight ambivalence in their relationship which gives the plot weight and reality where it could easily have floated off into 'Big Daddy' style saccharine fantasy.

Woeful child acting aside the rest of the cast perform admirably if at times a little averagely. But, as Will's character says, "This is the Will show" - and he's right, everyone else is clearly labeled 'supporting cast' which is probably a good job. A notable exception is Toni Collette who does an outstanding job as Marcus' suicidal, crazed vegetarian hippie mother, convincing us that she is trying to care, in her own out of touch kind of way, and enjoying some entertaining showdowns with Will along the way.

~~~~~~~~~~ Shot, cropped and scored ~~~~~~~~~~

As for the films production the editing is slick and effective. With well timed fades, cuts and scene transitions we get the impression that someone was taking pride in their work and not just trying to 'patch the scenes together'. Doing just enough to make us conscious of their presence but not so much as to distract us from the continuity of film. And the sound track, written exclusively by Badly Drawn Boy has to be one of the most fitting and most original film soundtracks in its genre. It hums away with a life of it's own, sometimes entering the frame, sometimes lingering in the background, but always present, underpinning the plot and enhancing the characters moods and moments. Eventually it becomes like an extra member of the cast, providing a lyrical narrative to accompany but never dominate the plot. One of the few soundtracks I'd instantly add to my 'must buy' list.

It has to be said that Peter Hedges along with the Weiz brothers have done an excellent job adapting the novel to the screen, but by all accounts they had outstanding source material with Nick Hornby's original novel (which my wife assures me is even funnier than the film). There are some obvious holes in the plot, for example how Marcus ends up winning the affection of the 'hard nut (soft centered?)' girl from school, and quite how Will ends up where he does with who he does is left I little to our imaginations, which possibly works better than spelling it all out.

~~~~~~~~~~ Holes and happy endings? ~~~~~~~~~~

The issue of Will's estranged father are hinted at but ultimately left untouched, which is a shame because this was probably the place where a lot of Will's 'hidden depth' and real interest lay. And one senses that his journey towards 'personal growth' is only partially complete as he conquers his 'Island mentality' (no that's not a reference to being British, rather a line from a Bon Jovi song) and begins to relate effectively and honestly to those around him, especially women. But the exclusion of any examination of this crucial father-son relationship leaves a sense of enigma surrounding Wills character, meaning that some stones remain unturned by the end of the film.

And despite the general 'good naturedness' of it all, at the end there is an underlying sense that Will has simply 'adapted' his lifestyle rather than fundamentally changed his views, almost with an air of reluctance. The cynics will say that this proves that the change is superficial and that his life remains meaningless, the optimistic amongst us would argue that it proves rather that Will always had this potential within him, and just lacked the opportunity (albeit it thrust upon him) to express the kind of selflessness and commitment in relationship which gives his life some meaning. The strength of the story is that Will finds these qualities within him, almost for his own sake, and sees these new revelations as reward in themselves, whether or not he 'gets the girl'.

Ultimately this is a highly entertaining, humorous and touching story about a man, a boy and everyone else. Well written and well acted it should appeal to both sexes equally and makes for great Friday night viewing.

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Note: This review refers to the film only, not the DVD. 

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