About a Boy

Hugh Grant has never had a more perfect role. Grant plays a selfish, shallow bachelor in the British romantic comedy About A Boy. Directed by brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, this film follows him as he learns that being shallow will eventually leave him alone and depressed.
Grant’s life is changed not by a woman, but by a young boy, Nicholas Hout, wholives with an unbalanced, flower-child mother. Grant first meets the boy at a session for single parents. He pulls off the callous role well, without any feeling towards his numerous love interests.
Of course, since this is a predictable romantic comedy, Grant begins to mature and become more sensitive. Hout constantly shows up at his house, bugging Grant to do cool things and teach him stuff. Grant is uneager at first, but with the boy’s persistence, eventually begins to act as a father figure. He then tries to capitalize on his newfound maturity to gain the affections of single mom Rachel Weisz. The movie moves from a typical beginning to a sappy, everyone-is-a-winner end.
The film does have a certain charm. Hout is cute as the boy who teaches Grant about maturity. Toni Collette plays the zany role of Hout’s mother well. Grant seems at ease with the callous bachelor part, but when the film tries to get serious, he looks out of place. The good new for audiences is that the film rarely tries to probe too deeply, albeit with a suicide attempt that seems out of place. For the most part, it remains predictable and cute, just another date movie on the cinematic landscape.