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About a Boy [2002]
starring: Hugh Grant|Toni Collette|Rachel Weisz
directed by: Chris & Paul Weitz

List Price: £19.99

Off The Bookshelf's Price: £4.97

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Used Price: £0.75
Collectible Price: £6.48
Third Party New Price: £0.98

Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 3259190383999
Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
Label: Vision Video Ltd.
Manufacturer: Vision Video Ltd.
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Vision Video Ltd.
Region Code: 2
Release Date: December 02, 2002
Running Time: 97 minutes
Studio: Vision Video Ltd.
Theatrical Release Date: May 17, 2002
Sales Rank: 2767

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
The film version of Nick Hornby's novel About a Boy takes a deeper though no less entertaining approach than the easy laughs of Fever Pitch and High Fidelity. The "coming together" of idle playboy Will (Hugh Grant) and put-upon loner Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) is a revealing tale of self-understanding and role reversal. Will finds that being yourself is of little consequence without a defining human context, while Marcus finds that pleasing others counts for little without a degree of self-confidence. How they arrive at this complementary awareness is the intriguing subject matter of the film, involving well-meaning single mothers, difficult adolescents and helpless older adults. Yet there's a wider significance to all this in the guise of human stereotypes--how we fall into them and how we can try to get out of them.

The film's wit and amusement comes down to deft and understated directing from Chris and Paul Weitz, and a snappily crafted screenplay from Peter Hedges and the Weitz brothers. Grant clips his hair as well as his vowels for a believable and ultimately sympathetic Will--by far his best performance since Four Weddings and a Funeral. As Marcus, Hoult is convincingly self-dependent, but could have been even more self-absorbed. Toni Colette is a dead-ringer for the well-meaning but ineffectual hippie mother Fiona, while Rachel Weisz gives her best screen performance to date as the attractive and vulnerable Rachel, with whom Will comes of age emotionally. Badly Drawn Boy's soundtrack will delight those who enjoy his brand of reconstituted 1970s Dylan; the title track has a wistful charm and there's a gem of an instrumental in the "Countdown" sequence. About a Boy is in the best traditions of British comedy: enlightening as it amuses, it's a film to enjoy and come back to. --Richard Whitehouse

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Suprisingly good!
Having bought this DVD a couple of years ago because it came in a set with Love Actually and Notting Hill, I have only just gotten round to watching it. And my have I been missing out? About a boy is an incredible film and will appeal to all ages and both genders. Great family viewing as it is not littered with swearing like the majority of films around and no cringy 'oh my god i can't believe i'm watching this with my children/ parents' moments!
All in all a fantastic performance from Hugh Grant, and a wonderful feel-good comedy (which is actually funny) that i am sure to watch again and again... just maybe not as much as i watch Love Actually cos that would be impossible!
Highly recommended

Rating:

- Not Hugh Grant's Finest Offering
If you're a Hugh Grant fan (which I am) then this is an enjoyable enough film but it doesn't rank with the likes of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" or "Notting Hill". If you're not a Grant fan then you'll probably loathe it. It's difficult to have any sympathy with Grant's character and the rest of the cast (with the possible exception of Rachel Weisz) aren't that engaging. I'm not sure if that's down to the casting, acting or writing but somewhere the chemistry went missing (or failed to arrive). My recommendation: watch it when it comes round on TV rather than spend your hard earned cash on the DVD.

Rating:

- Most enjoyable
A very amusing, wistful, typical British movie. Hugh Grant plays the lead, a self-centered, well off, (his father wrote a best selling xmas song from which he lives off of the royalties) lazy, batchelor, who is simply out to conquer attractive women and then move on when he thinks the relationship is getting to intense. When he finally falls for Rachel Weisz, he weaves a web of half truths (lies!) that backfire on him just when he thinks he has found the "one".The actor who plays the "boy" is great and is the catalyst that shoves Grant firmly into the real world of relationships, from which he has hitherto avoided. The scene where in order to rescue the young lad from making a fool of himself at his school concert, he comes on playing guitar, ... Read More:

Rating:

- My Kids Loved it
I bought this to watch with my 13 & 11 year old boys and they both loved it. It hooked them from the start and they intend to hang on to it so they can watch it again. It's family viewing. A good, funny feel-good movie.

Rating:

- QUITE A FUNNY FILM
`About a Boy' was being touted as a great make over for Hugh Grant... and it is. Gone is his infamous bumbling English fop role, his fluffy hair lost to a sharp, more stylish cut. Here he plays a rich selfish layabout, Will, who cruises through life on the royalties from a song his deceased father penned years ago. He finds a great way to meet women who don't want to get involved through a single mother's group - which is where he meets the strange twelve year old boy Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), who lives with his depressed, suicidal mother Fiona (Toni Collette). A tragic event sees Marcus seeking comfort with the indifferent Will who begins to realise that there's more to life than sitting around at home all day.

Hugh Grant is on peak ... Read More:

DVD : About a Boy [2002]