About a Boy Reviews
Top CriticPleasant 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.
Hornby's crises and characters can be so facile, schematic and smugly moralistic that emotional substance can get overshadowed by fluff.
The movie occasionally strains for crowd-pleasing moments as it pumps up the drama toward the end, but it more than earns our indulgence.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
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.
About a Boy is sophisticated and nuanced, and every character is bursting with emotional contradictions.
Most of us have uttered this familiar refrain: The movie is never as good as the book. About a Boy flies in the face of that maxim.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
About A Boy measures out its redemption, but it's keenly felt all the same, and very much enjoyed.
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| Original Score: 3/5
An honest movie about childhood that avoids sappiness and sentiment and goes in unexpected directions.
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| Original Score: 3/4
About a Boy vividly recalls the Cary Grant of Room for One More, Houseboat and Father Goose in its affectionate depiction of the gentle war between a reluctant, irresponsible man and the kid who latches onto him.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
A shrewd (if uneven) hybrid of American savvy and British savoir-faire.
| Original Score: 3/4
Hilarious, acidic Brit comedy.
| Original Score: 3/4
The summer movie season has barely begun, and already we have its first big surprise.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
A flick about our infantilized culture that isn't entirely infantile.
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| Original Score: 3/4
A truly winning comedy about romance.
| Original Score: 3/4
Although the plot devices that bring Will and Marcus together are complicated, they never seem strained or artificial.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
Hugh Grant, who has a good line in charm, has never been more charming than in About a Boy.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
Rascally Hugh Grant, a beyond-awkward little boy and the makers of American Pie team up for a near-perfect comic delight.
A lot of the credit for the film's winning tone must go to Grant, who hasn't lost a bit of the dry humor that first made audiences on both sides of the Atlantic love him.
| Original Score: 4/5
Less inventive than the one Stephen Frears put forward in High Fidelity two years ago, but also more satisfying.
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| Original Score: 4/5
There's a potential for something better still that never manages to get realized.
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| Original Score: 3.5/5
Some credit for that deservedly goes to Grant. To his credit, he doesn't stoop to his puppy-dog pander.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Hoult is one of those amazing child actors whose faces serve as sheer membrane to their hearts.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
About a Boy pulls off the savvy trick of teaching life lessons without making you gag on them.
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| Original Score: B+
Fans of the Hornby book should be pleased by the Weitzes' smart, faithful translation.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The movie sticks much closer to Hornby's drop-dead confessional tone than the film version of High Fidelity did.
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| Original Score: B+
As Hugh Grant says repeatedly throughout the movie, 'Lovely! Brilliant!'
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Since the central odd couple have no rapport, their bond never seems to progress past mutual usury.
Using a stock plot, About a Boy injects just enough freshness into the proceedings to provide an enjoyable 100 minutes in a movie theater.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
That rare gem that tugs at the heartstrings with no manipulative sentimentality.
The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film.
| Original Score: 3.5/5
Beautifully written and directed and packed with excellent performances.
