Hugh Grant is excellent - as ever - in the starring role as the non-working, rather shallow, but immensely likeable Will. Nicholas Hoult is his 12-year-old co-star, as the all-too-responsible Marcus who is loved but rather neglected by his strangely flaky mother.
Marcus is decidedly uncool and gets bullied at school. Will - who is something of a womaniser - comes into his life after inventing a two-year-old son, a ploy that allows him to meet single mothers...
As with the book, this movie is an interesting mixture of pathos and humour. Near tragedy in places combines with some highly amusing moments. Towards the end, the film did rather veer away from the plot of the book (unless I have entirely forgotten some parts of it, which is entirely possible) but as a story, it works well.
'About a boy' is rather more thought-provoking than a lot of modern films of this genre, and very well done.
Recommended.
Unusually, I even watched the extras that came with the DVD. The deleted scenes gave more that was in the book, although we could see that they were not necessary for the film. The 'making of' was reasonably interesting, but nothing special.
Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews
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