About a Boy (film)
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| About a Boy | |
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 About a Boy movie poster |
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| Directed by | Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz |
| Produced by | Lynn Harris |
| Written by | Nick Hornby (novel), Peter Hedges (screenplay) |
| Starring | Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, Sharon Small |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 17, 2002 |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £20,000,000 GBP |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
About a Boy is a 2002 English film directed by brothers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, based on the book of the same name by Nick Hornby. The film stars Hugh Grant as Will, Nicholas Hoult as Marcus, Toni Collette as Fiona and Rachel Weisz as Rachel. An interesting aspect of the movie is the use of double voice-over narration, where, at crucial moments in the plot as well as the introduction, the audience can follow Will's as well as Marcus's thoughts.
Hugh Grant has suggested this is the work he is the most proud of. The film is frequently re-run on TV channel ITV in the United Kingdom throughout the year.
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[edit] Plot
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The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) is a content, willingly unemployed Londoner in his late thirties who lives comfortably off the royalties of his father's lucrative one-hit wonder Christmas tune.He is enjoying his life at its fullest. He keeps himself occupied by shopping, playing snooker, smoking, drinking scotch and having his hair "carefully disheveled"( he almost resembles an adolescent). He dates often, but has never had a relationship last longer than two months. Will acts rather childishly and refuses to take responsibility or care for anybody apart from himself and while shallow, it's a fact he's happy to live with even though his friends have all gone on to raising families and building careers.
Pretending he has a son called Ned, Will joins a single parents' group called "SPAT" (Single Parents Alone Together) in order to meet single mothers, a demographic which he believes provides easy sex. There he comes across Susie, whom he manages to invite on a date. On the date she is accompanied by Marcus, the son of her friend and single mum Fiona, who is an eccentric, vegetarian hippy. Twelve-year-old Marcus is an outsider, he dresses weirdly and has no friends. On that day, Will, Susie and Marcus go to the park and Marcus accidentally kills a duck (by throwing an entire loaf of bread at it). When a park keeper takes notice, Will covers for Marcus and they get out of the situation unscathed. They return to his house, to discover that his mother has tried to kill herself. The three rush her to the hospital and she survives.
Marcus feels that it would cheer up his depressive mother if she had a boyfriend, so he cons Will into taking the two of them out for a meal. The two do not hit it off, but Marcus begins coming over to Will's flat, who always turns him away. Marcus discovers that Will had lied and does not have a son called Ned. Using this against Will, he blackmails him into letting him visit every day after school. This gradually becomes a routine and in turn, the two begin to bond with one another. Gradually, Will and Marcus become friends, and Will endeavours to help the perennially teased Marcus to blend into the crowd. Needless to say, spending time with each other starts to change both of them, Will in particular.
Later on, Will and Marcus drift apart. The boy becomes friends with a trendy girl at school named Ellie (Natalia Tena) and Will finds a new girlfriend, Rachel. Again, he pretends to have a son, this time he claims it is Marcus. Will tries to persuade the boy to feign this role, and after initially hesitating, Marcus agrees to help him. Will arranges a "playdate" with Marcus and Rachel's son Ali in order to spend more time with Rachel(Rachel Weisz). Marcus and Ali do not hit it off initially; Alistair clearly angry that the introduction of Will into his mother's life would result in him not being the only man in her life. Despite this, Will and Rachel's relationship grows stronger.
Eventually Will decides to tell Rachel the truth over a meal in a restaurant, namely that Marcus is not his son. Rachel is deeply affronted by the lie and Will, ashamed of himself, removes himself from the restaurant. For several days, Will secludes himself in his house, distraught at the loss of the woman he had strong feelings for and unable to carry on with his normal routine.
Fiona suffers from depression again, so her son tries to get help from Will. Since this is a serious problem and Will is still in a period of anguish following the breakdown of the relationship with Rachel, Will refuses to help and this culminates into an embittered argument between the two.
To cheer Fiona up, Marcus remembers that his mother always enjoyed hearing her son sing, so in a desperate attempt to distract her from suicidal thoughts, he enters himself in an upcoming school talent show, to perform a solo of one of her favourite tunes, "Killing Me Softly".
As soon as Will finds out Marcus intends to perform this particular piece, he rushes to stop him, knowing that Marcus would be humiliated in front of his peers. Will arrives just in time, but Marcus goes on stage anyway and begins to sing a cappella a song clearly meant to be performed by a woman. As the crowd begins to jeer him, Will joins him on stage with a guitar in an obvious attempt to divert the crowd's attention away from Marcus and towards him. The two win over the audience in a comedic performance. Rachel is touched by the level of devotion Will has towards Marcus and the two reconcile.
The movie ends with a jump to the following Christmas, showing Will and Marcus's "extended" family made up of both Will, Marcus, Fiona, Rachel and her son, Marcus's friend Ellie, and an acquaintance of Will's (from his one day spent working the phones for Amnesty International) whom he perhaps plans to fix up with Fiona.
[edit] Cast
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To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (January 2008) |
| Role | Actor |
| Will Freeman | Hugh Grant |
| Marcus Brewer | Nicholas Hoult |
| Fiona Brewer | Toni Collette |
| Rachel | Rachel Weisz |
| Ellie | Natalia Tena |
[edit] Movie soundtrack
The movie soundtrack, also titled About A Boy was released in 2002. Unusually, the entire soundtrack was composed by one singer/songwriter, Badly Drawn Boy.
[edit] External links
