About a Boy - 1st April 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night runs headlong into April, but there's no fooling us as we relax and discover what it is;

About a Boy

Based on the best selling novel by Nick Hornby, About a Boy traces the strange relationship between the single, handsome but ever-so shallow Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) and the shy, secluded and very awkward twelve year old Marcus Brewer (Nicholas Hoult). They come together after playboy Will discovers the wonders of single mums. After dating several single mothers he chances upon Suzie. Suzie happens to be friends with Fiona Brewer (Toni Collette), Marcus's tree hugging, veggie loving, hippy mum. As a result Will meets Marcus.

With it so far?

Fiona is an almost constant depressive, hence the instability of young Marcus and his penchant for singing aloud in class for no apparent reason. It transpires after another bout of depression, that Fiona attempts to take her own life, but luckily she is found in time by Suzie, Will and Marcus. Will helps out in the crisis but as a result Marcus becomes attached to Will and see's him as a friend, although Will is not so sure that he needs a twelve year old boy coming around to his house everyday to watch Countdown.

And so this friendship builds, young Marcus with an adult outlook on life and adult Will, with an adolescent view on things, clearly they can help each other out here.

So there is the premise behind the story, simple yet effective, but it so much more than this, layered on top of this idea is the interweaving stories of the characters on the periphery of the main thread. Hugh Grant, love him or loathe him is superb as Will and the way that he provides the narration over the top adds another layer to the plot as he can provide the back story to events as they unfold. Ally this with a superb supporting cast and you have the makings of a modern day classic. It fits nicely into the same genre as Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral, in the fact that it is a melancholic romantic comedy drama, but it also has that spark that those other films have too. The innocence portrayal of Marcus by Nicholas Hoult is fantastic and although Hugh Grant yet again plays Hugh Grant, no real actor could really have filled those shoes. Grant portrays the immature and self-centred Will to perfection.

If we were to have some negative points, then the part where Will joins a single parent group merely to pick up single mothers seemed a little cringe-worthy and a tad far fetched. And the Kidz Rock concert at the end had the inevitable result when Marcus got up to sing, the copious amounts of cheese in that scene did make you squirm a bit. However, the way the writers played the relationship between Will and Marcus's mum; Fiona was really well thought through, in many other films the diverse characters in a relationship would converge at the end for a warm hearted finale, but this is not the case in About a Boy, in fact "Miss Granola Suicide" (this is what Will sarcastically calls Fiona in part of the narration), does not find Will attractive. Which is such a breath of fresh air, to have a storyline steer clear of the formulaic and actually follow it's head and not it's heart.

About a Boy is a really gratifying, heart warming film, the kind we like here at TNiFN Towers. Is the film better than the book, or is the book better than the film? Good question, we'll read the book and let you know.

On to the all important scores, About a Boy hit the spot with tonight's judges and scores;

TNiFN Rating 82%

IMDB Link