About A Boy Review

Hugh Grant starring in a new English comedy, whoever would have thought it? To be fair to the "Four Weddings…" "Notting Hill" and "Bridget Jones's Diary" star his character in "About A Boy" is something of a change for him; gone is the foppish fringe and mock aristocratic manner, replaced with a fashionably brutal haircut and a wardrobe taken from the latest edition of GQ. Will is a thirty eight year old man, handsome, rich, self obsessed and commitment phobic, with no desire to settle for the supposed domestic bliss obtained by his peers. Consequently it comes as much as a surprise to him when a cunning plan to meet equally reluctant to commit single mothers by inventing a two year old tyke called Ned backfires, and he finds himself developing a true friendship with Marcus, a twelve year old boy with a suicidal mother who is also the class nerd.

US directors Chris & Paul Weitz – whose last movie was the blockbusting comedy "American Pie" – are to be praised for insisting that this Hollywood project remain rooted in London, rather than being transplanted to some anonymous American city, and consequently it remains loyal (for the most part) to the Nick ("Fever Pitch," "High Fidelity") Hornby novel that spawned it. Held together by Grant's central performance as Will, and newcomer Nicholas Hoult successfully bemused Marcus, this is a thoroughly engaging and entertaining comedy that look set to find fans on both sides of the Atlantic.