About a boy (From Stroud News and Journal)

About a boy

ONE problem with single parent families is succinctly put by the young star of this film:

"There is no back up." We all need back up and one person isn't enough.

About A Boy is based on the book of the same name by Nick Hornby, which sold over a million copies in the UK alone.

It is a story that touchingly covers many of today's social problems, so is appealing in much the same way as Bridget Jones's Diary.

Shallow should be Will's (Hugh Grant) middle name, which he gladly owns up to when he is asked to be a godfather to his friend Christine's (Sharon Smith) baby girl.

He declines, saying he would inevitably miss every birthday until she was 18 and then take her out to dinner and want to bonk her.

It is even more obvious that he is not child friendly when Christine's son walks in and Will mutters "Here we go, the Anti-Christ."

At 38 he happily admits to being totally irresponsible and lazy. Fortunately for him his father wrote one hit Christmas song and he has been living off the royalties ever since.

However, after a brief relationship with a single mother he sees a reservoir of advantages attached to young children. Pretending he has a two-year-old son called Ned he joins a single-parent group where he gets his first date with Susie (Victoria Smurfit).

When he collects Susie and her baby for a picnic in the park she brings along an odd 12-year-old boy called Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) whose mother Fiona (Toni Collette) is having a hard time coping.

On returning from their day out they find Fiona has tried to top herself, thereby making the already complex Marcus even stranger. He starts to see Will as his saviour.

Marcus finds out Will lied about his son Ned and begins to turn up at his house every day after school in time for Countdown, because he is lonely and needs a break from his neurotic mother - that is until Fiona, now recovered, finds out and get the wrong end of the stick.

After discovering that Will is harmless she soon realises he has a very positive effect on Marcus and before Will can say no he is invited to spend Christmas with them.

After a tricky start to the festivities - Susie is there and is furious he lied about Ned - Will starts enjoying himself and notices he gets the same feeling of contentment whenever he is making Marcus happy.

On New Years Eve he meets and falls for Rachel (Rachel Weisz) and finds himself unintentionally lying again, but this time he needs Marcus to help him out.

So in the end could both these emotionally damaged souls gain from their singularly unusual friendship?

I confess to being a massive Grant fan - he is a real love him or hate him star and I am the former, but I didn't enjoy About A Boy.

There is no doubt he is at his best in this film but his supporting cast is bland and dreary. The script by Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz captures the story's charm, but is very short on laughs.

Overall the Weitz brothers' (American Pie) direction lacks spark.

Young Hoult is fine, but Collette looks so weird it is hard to warm to her.

I can hardly believe I am saying this about a Grant film but although it is very likeable, with a brilliant start, sadly it is rather dull.

Clare Shepherd 5/10