The story on this one is that it began as a short story and morphed into a full novel. Most of the reviews I read indicate a dissatisfaction with the length of the novel; that it was too short. I disagree; I think this would have made a near perfect short story. Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy the novel; I certainly did. But being a quick read is a goal, not a flaw, and lengthening this story could only have hurt it, not helped.
Gaiman is always an illustrative writer, and he may be at his best here as he stays close to home; his remembrances of childhood and the world of his past ground this otherwise supernatural tale. Best of all is the way he puts the focus of the story solely through the eyes of his seven year old protagonist. The story grows increasingly more adult, dark and serious, but the perspective remains with the boy and he retains his singularly child-like voice; everything is viewed consistently as a child, which really keeps the story fresh. Gaiman never lets the boy have adult insights or allows an omniscient view for narrative ease.
While I didn’t think it was up there with some of his best (and I appear to be in the minority on that), this is nevertheless one of his most personal novels and well recommended.
The beginning of it all. Unpolished as all first novels, it is a great read and it’s easy to see how the phenomenon got started. All the pieces are here to set up a foundation for a franchise, and if this is a fairly simple story it is to leave room for you to get a good look at the character. Vesper is hugely underwritten and only illustrates just how amazing of an adaptation Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & Paul Haggis wrote for the 2006 film.
Totally over-the-top satire, subtle as shovel to face. But it’s funny. Would have enjoyed more if I saw it 14years ago when it came out…
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Another day, another over-obvious satire. Oh well. At least this one is pretty good, even if it suffers from John Waters envy.
For her feature film debut, director Jamie Babbitt came up with the story based partly on articles she read and partly on observing her mother’s work at a drug treatment program for teens. Changing the focus of these treatment camps to homosexuality is an inspired idea for a film, and would be much funnier if these places didn’t actually exist. The story was turned over to Brian Wayne Peterson, a writer/producer on the tv series Smallville, for his only film screenwriting credit to date.
The movie delights in being loud and blatant, freely acknowledging its inspirations from John Waters & Edward Scissorhands. It’s been done before, but that doesn’t mean the garish colors and sterile superficiality of the camp work any less well.
The only thing this really suffers from is time, since I’m seeing it for a first viewing nearly 15 years after release. I’ve seen better since, but it isn’t fair to knock a movie for that. It was a game changer for gay films at the time and deserves recognition.
Odd little indie movie within a movie. Felt like a student film. I think it must have been a vanity project. Kept waiting for it to start…
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I stumbled upon this and gave it a shot. It would have made a boring one hour tv show. At 90 minutes I was damn near asleep.
There’s nothing wrong with quirky little love stories. This wasn’t one, though. It wasn’t quirky and there was no real love. This just felt like a film student’s first project unexpectedly got financing and populated with real actors.
The casting is near perfect, which is another backhanded compliment. Jay Baruchel & Alexis Bleidel are given nothing to work with but that’s ok, as that’s more or less what they bring with them. It’s like a deadpan delivery contest. I’ve liked each of them separately in other projects before, but putting them together is a non-starter.
I don’t know what’s the bigger surprise: Hugh Grant being likable or the American Pie guys making a great movie. Great acting in this one…
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Chose to review this one today to recognize the 20th anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain. This is a bit of a stretch, as the film completely ignores the numerous Cobain references that were so prominent in the book. Author Nick Hornby titled his novel “About A Boy” after the Nirvana song “About A Girl” and had several plot points based off of the musician’s cultural influence. I get that they wanted to update the timeframe of the story to match the movie’s release date, but they really cut out a big piece of the book’s heart.
This movie may be notable partly because it was the first thing with Hugh Grant that wasn’t intolerable. (Caveat: I didn’t see Four Weddings and a Funeral until after seeing this, and that’s a great movie. Although, to be fair, it is also directly responsible for the crap movies that Grant made afterwards.)
Will Freeman (Grant) is a lazy, jobless, bird-dogging island of a man who inadvertently stumbles upon the world of single mothers as an untapped resource of future liaisons. He even invents a young son to gain entry into a single parent support group. This plan goes awry when Fiona (Toni Collette), one of the single parents, attempts suicide and Will finds himself shadowed by her teenage child Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), desperate to form a connection.
About A Boy was written for film by Peter Hedges and directors Chris & Paul Weitz, and received an Oscar nomination for the adapted screenplay. It’s a great adaptation and the writing is whip-smart.
The movie is so good because it isn’t afraid to show life as the messy, sometimes frustrating and never simple son of a bitch it is. There are no clean moments here, no easy relationships. That’s not to say that it’s depressing or anything, it’s just a very realistic depiction of life.
The music for the film by artist Badly Drawn Boy is quite good, with the poppy “Something to Talk About” a particular standout; you’ll know it, they play it about 30 times.
The acting is stellar. In addition to Grant’s career best performance, Rachel Weisz and especially Toni Collette are marvelous, and newcomer Nicholas Hoult in his film debut is captivating.
Based on Nick Hornby’s best-selling novel, About A Boy is the story of a cynical, immature young man who is taught how to act like a grown-up by a little boy
