63%
——
96%
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 162
Fresh: 151 | Rotten: 11
A winning comedy that benefits from Hugh Grant's boyish charms.
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 3
A winning comedy that benefits from Hugh Grant's boyish charms.
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Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 29,749,465
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London's most frequently eligible bachelor gets some lessons in growing up from a maladroit 12-year-old boy in this third big-screen adaptation of a Nick Hornby novel, directed and co-written by siblings Chris and Paul Weitz of American Pie fame. About a Boy concerns the parallel coming-of-age stories of the thirtysomething Will (Hugh Grant), a layabout "serial nice guy" living a posh, carefree lifestyle off his deceased father's fortune; and the preteen Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), a bright but
PG-13, 1 hr. 41 min.
May 17, 2002 Wide
Jan 14, 2003
$40.6M
Universal Pictures
All Critics (169) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (158) | Rotten (11) | DVD (27)
Pleasant and engaging, rather than laugh-out-loud funny or emotionally involving.
Few movies have made better use of Hugh Grant's shallow charm and amused befuddlement than this funny and well-paced adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-selling second novel.
The first big studio movie of 2002 I didn't want to end.
The movie occasionally strains for crowd-pleasing moments as it pumps up the drama toward the end, but it more than earns our indulgence.
In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance.
I loved the novel and I love what they did with it.
Like Billy Wilder with a British bent, "About a Boy" lithely dances around uneasy comedy - attempted suicide, fragile kids of divorce, childhood bereft of memorable experiences. But it never trivializes them, emphasizing life's quality over its quantity.
Grant grows a heart in Hornby-book pic; teens+.
Predictable but entertaining.
More successful as a Hugh Grant vehicle than as a Nick Hornby adaptation.
For a while the movie has lots of laughs, and a fun Christmas theme besides.
Admirably lacking in sentiment, this is a comedy-drama with a steady supply of laughs.
Hornby's crises and characters can be so facile, schematic and smugly moralistic that emotional substance can get overshadowed by fluff.
touching, sweet, and sentimental without ever being sappy or cloying
an engaging film that has some depth and a likeable ensemble cast. It's a comedy, though, only by classic definition
This movie is about people talking, making decisions, and growing from their experiences.
Rated this high cause I dig Badly Drawn Boy. And cause if must do a chick-flick, you could do a lot worse.
March 25, 2007Super Reviewer
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