About A Boy

Written by Jim Carruthers
Published April 23, 2003

"About A Boy", adapted from Nick Hornby's novel is one of Hugh Grant's best recent roles, playing a shallow, immature cad who refuses to grow up (as Jon Bon Jovi said: "No man is an island", but Will is, the island of Ibisa). This is a similiar theme to the book version of "High Fidelity" where the protagonist must make a conscious decision to grow up.

The movie features one of my favourite actresses, Toni Collette as the title boy, Marcus' mother.

One of the surprising discoveries I had was that the movie was directed by Chris and Paul Weitz who are better known for directing and producing the "American Pie" series. The DVD commentary has some great discussions from them about pacing and scene setting (such as in a scene of characters sitting and talking, the scene cannot last longer than 45 seconds per character).

As with "High Fidelity", music plays a key role in the plot and the movie. There is one other boy in this movie, which is the soundtrack by Badly Drawn Boy. Among the extras are videos, and a profile / interview with Damon Gough.


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About A Boy
Published: April 23, 2003
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Section: Video
Filed Under: Books: Children, Books: Entertainment, Music: Pop, Music: Soundtracks, Video: Comedy, Video: Music
Writer: Jim Carruthers
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#1 — April 24, 2003 @ 03:59AM — visualsimplicity [URL]

That soundtrack is a masterpiece. Probably the best work from Damon Gough that I've heard of (yes better than Bewilderbeast and Fed the Fish). Some consider him the British Beck (although I don't see their music being all that similar, but I do see them being similar in the sense that both are incredibly creative artists). Oh yeah, and the movie is quite excellent too.

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