It's About Time

In a time where it seems most Netflix users I know are all about the instant streaming, I still adhere to the disc-by-mail plan -- the plan that gives me access to all of their content instead of a tiny slice. Of course, the company is counting on a good chunk of its customers not mailing their discs back in a timely fashion.

Recently, I was just that sort of customer, as I held on to About a Boy long enough that it probably would have been cheaper to buy it than "rent" it for so long. Worse still, when I finally got around to watching it, I found it wasn't really worth the wait. I didn't strongly dislike the movie, but I'd certainly had my expectations built up too high by the film's presence of several Best of the Year lists and the like. I think it was praised because of some slightly novel tweaks it made on a well-established formula.

Hugh Grant plays a typical rom-com curmudgeon who transforms from a womanizer to a romantic in the course of less than two hours. Usually in these movies, these kinds of changes begin when the character meets "the right woman." Here, however, there's the intermediate step of meeting the quirky pre-teen son of... actually, that's the second twist -- it's not even the son of The Woman, but of an Entirely Different Woman.

Novel, yes. But the way it unfolds isn't believable, even by rom-com standards. I found it difficult to go with the story, as they started Hugh Grant's character off as such a soulless letch that redemption seemed too improbable. Weirder still is "the boy," played by then-newcomer Nicholas Hoult. Everything about him in the movie is styled to hyper-weirdness. He looks quirky, he behaves wildly, he shows up uninvited to places; in short, he's a big nuisance. We're meant to believe that this nuisance that won't be ignored is the catalyst that changes Grant's character, but realistically I can only imagine it pushing him further into his shell.

The actors do their level best to sell this unbelievable material. The film relies a great deal on Hugh Grant's charm to compensate for the lack of charm of his character. Nicholas Hoult plays his character in such a way that you can believe such a person would exist (even if he wouldn't bring about the plot developments of the film). Toni Collette and Rachel Weisz are both strong in supporting roles.

Ultimately, though, I'm just not quite sure what the fuss was about. I rate About a Boy a C-.