Early on in 'About a boy' the opinion is ventured that `no man is an island'. At the same stage I was wondering when `romantic comedy' became a euphemism for 'inoffensive date movie'. The film shed little light on the facts behind either theory, but succeeded in proving them both as true and unchangeable as rush hour traffic.
The story follows Will, a fashionable layabout with no cares in the world, and Marcus, a 12-year old boy with a manically depressed hippy for a mother whose school life makes a working week in a sweatshop seem attractive. The unlikely pair end up together when Will's plan to date single mothers for some hassle free relationships backfires in the most ironic way possible.
We are then treated to the usual selection of writer Nick Hornby's pop culture observations and comic characterisations of nerdy males having to contend with the concept of a serious relationship and real life. Whilst the electric prose of his debut 'Fever Pitch' has faded through his later works Hornby still has the power to leave a readers jaw hanging in the breeze by having his generally likeable protagonists commit truly nasty acts. It is this risk taking and realism that gives his writing an edge. Unfortunately the film adaptations of his books merely see him as the new Cameron Crowe, and 'About A Boy' offers a double jackpot with the smart arse kiddie factor that was so successful in Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.
It is depressingly predictable that the casting tells you everything you need to know about the film. Hugh Grant can make a mass murderer seem like an amusingly misunderstood guy, so his portrayal of Will seems charming to the point of sainthood, whilst Rachel Weitz may as well have 'attractive love interest' stapled to her forehead the way the make-up and lighting departments have obviously fawned over her. Grant's spiky hair cut and characterisations can't stop the audience warming to him, where someone like Richard E Grant could have given the character real sleaze, anger and most of all depth.
Such safe playing production touches smother the original touches of the film. The homespun soundtrack, completely composed by Badly Drawn Boy, is cut so slickly into the film it starts sounding like a selection from Time Life music 'acoustic love moods' CD. This wrecks the rare pleasure of having a maverick songwriter given creative control over a movies entire soundscape (at Hornby's request no less). Toni Collete's gutsy performance as Marcus' mother is edited down to little more than a hippy-chic cameo of her Muriel's Wedding persona and idiosyncratic touches such as man and boy bonding over Countdown are poorly handled.
If this wasn't enough to send the viewers higher brain functions to sleep we are given not one but two voiceovers in the film to make sure every nuance of every performance is clearly explained with no hint of ambiguity, thereby killing off any depth that accidentally may have been left in the film.
Despite this Grant's charm carries the film safely to it's conclusion with a few belly laughs along the way. But this never excuses the fact that the film lacks the consistency of jokes to survive as comedy or the emotive depth to work as drama. In short it is another film which has lead to the words `romantic comedy' describing films which are generally neither one nor the other.
The story follows Will, a fashionable layabout with no cares in the world, and Marcus, a 12-year old boy with a manically depressed hippy for a mother whose school life makes a working week in a sweatshop seem attractive. The unlikely pair end up together when Will's plan to date single mothers for some hassle free relationships backfires in the most ironic way possible.
We are then treated to the usual selection of writer Nick Hornby's pop culture observations and comic characterisations of nerdy males having to contend with the concept of a serious relationship and real life. Whilst the electric prose of his debut 'Fever Pitch' has faded through his later works Hornby still has the power to leave a readers jaw hanging in the breeze by having his generally likeable protagonists commit truly nasty acts. It is this risk taking and realism that gives his writing an edge. Unfortunately the film adaptations of his books merely see him as the new Cameron Crowe, and 'About A Boy' offers a double jackpot with the smart arse kiddie factor that was so successful in Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.
It is depressingly predictable that the casting tells you everything you need to know about the film. Hugh Grant can make a mass murderer seem like an amusingly misunderstood guy, so his portrayal of Will seems charming to the point of sainthood, whilst Rachel Weitz may as well have 'attractive love interest' stapled to her forehead the way the make-up and lighting departments have obviously fawned over her. Grant's spiky hair cut and characterisations can't stop the audience warming to him, where someone like Richard E Grant could have given the character real sleaze, anger and most of all depth.
Such safe playing production touches smother the original touches of the film. The homespun soundtrack, completely composed by Badly Drawn Boy, is cut so slickly into the film it starts sounding like a selection from Time Life music 'acoustic love moods' CD. This wrecks the rare pleasure of having a maverick songwriter given creative control over a movies entire soundscape (at Hornby's request no less). Toni Collete's gutsy performance as Marcus' mother is edited down to little more than a hippy-chic cameo of her Muriel's Wedding persona and idiosyncratic touches such as man and boy bonding over Countdown are poorly handled.
If this wasn't enough to send the viewers higher brain functions to sleep we are given not one but two voiceovers in the film to make sure every nuance of every performance is clearly explained with no hint of ambiguity, thereby killing off any depth that accidentally may have been left in the film.
Despite this Grant's charm carries the film safely to it's conclusion with a few belly laughs along the way. But this never excuses the fact that the film lacks the consistency of jokes to survive as comedy or the emotive depth to work as drama. In short it is another film which has lead to the words `romantic comedy' describing films which are generally neither one nor the other.