About a Boy goes out on a limb and succeeds. It’s a story about a single man embittered against the world who eventually softens towards others and settles down with a single person. Telling such a story in a genuine way is so difficult, many serious filmmakers don’t even try anymore. Using Nick Hornby’s novel, directors Chris and Paul Weitz try and pull it off. Wonderfully so too.

About a Boy is a joy. The humor is all as real as can be. Will (Hugh Grant), as an exaggeration of the stereotypical male, brings genuine humor to real perspectives and circumstances. Grant is perfectly cast for this utterly superficial yet ultimately sensitive single man.

Will, who insists he “lives on an island”, does nothing but watch TV during the day and go on dates as night. He has no job, but pays the bills through the inheritance of a hit Christmas song his father wrote. One day, Will realizes the benefits of dating women with children and goes to a single parents support group, pretending to be a single father, just to find women.

Subsequent events lead us to Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), son of one of the single mothers in the group (Toni Collette), and is heavily picked on at school. He likes Will though, and continually goes over to his house to hand out uninvited. As time goes on, Will and Marcus teach each other to grow up.

Arguably about each of these boys independently, About a Boy succeeds in interweaving two coming of age tales that build on each other and produce something much greater than the sum of its parts. About a Boy is sweet, sincere, funny and uplifting. It’s refreshing to see something so sweet done so well.

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