- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
100The timing and cutting of the film are terrific, the build-up to an absurdly hilarious climax is just right, and the performances are near perfect.
-
100That rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishized coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings.
-
90As close to mainstream perfection as I've seen all year. It gives us everything we want, need and deserve without batting an eye.
-
90Sophisticated and nuanced, and every character is bursting with emotional contradictions.
-
90Movie purists will tell you that a heavy reliance on voice-over is a sin (“show, don’t tell”), but when the words are this funny, to hell with purity.
-
90It's irresistible, damn it. Mainstream comedies should all be this funny and tender and deftly performed.
-
90Better than a feelgood movie, it's a feelgreat movie -- genuinely clever, affecting when you least expect it to be and funny from start to finish.
-
90Hilarious, touching and wonderfully dyspeptic.
-
89About a Boy knows exactly what it wants to do: It wants to make you smile, and grin, and then laugh with recognition, and it manages all three, again and again.
-
88We have all the action heroes and Method script-chewers we need right now, but the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource.
-
88It's funny, moving and true, and it respects the audience's intelligence as much as the characters'. That combination, no matter the movie's label, deserves to be treasured.
-
88The summer movie season has barely begun, and already we have its first big surprise.
-
88The film is a sharp, funny, touching tale.
-
88About a Boy is a rarity in many ways. It's a well-written, witty film whose memorable characters grapple with the nature of family, love, friendship and despair. Even its soundtrack, by Badly Drawn Boy, is perfectly pitched.
-
83Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into the rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency.
-
80Few scenarios are more cliched than the curmudgeonly father-figure who takes in the precocious imp -- irritation in the first two acts, love in the third -- but Hornby infuses it with warmth and honesty, not to mention his obvious gift for wry observation.
-
80The Weitz brothers -- notorious as the authors of the "American Pie" series -- handle the sentimentality of the story with a light, sweet touch.
-
80Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of About a Boy is how substantial it plays -- as a feel-good film with weight, a knowing comedy with dramatic depth.
-
80Illuminating with their energy and wit.
-
75A comedy hit, but its secret is that it delves deeper than the usual summer fare.
-
75Hilarious, acidic Brit comedy.
-
75In addition to being a smart comedy and an excellent showcase for Grant, it's an honest movie about childhood that avoids sappiness and sentiment and goes in unexpected directions.
-
75Not a daring film, but it is immensely likable. Every once in a while, a movie comes along that, despite traversing familiar terrain, is made with enough all-around skill that it overcomes its clichéd origins. About a Boy is such a movie.
-
75The love that blooms is essentially between the boys. They both have some considerable growing up to do, but theirs is a true romance and it's awfully sweet. Funny, too.
-
75If the brothers Weitzes) don't yet have a defined style, they do seem at ease with this more sophisticated material.
-
75Hugh Grant is one of the true phenomena of new millennium moviemaking. In an era in which the broadest and most scatological comedy imaginable rules, he's built a career for himself as a sophisticated light comedian very much in the style of his hero, David Niven.
-
70As these characters all move from isolated loners to relying on each other, the film never pounds its point in -- even the big set pieces are slightly askance, just giving more insight into the characters without preaching.
-
70The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film. It helps also that newcomer Hoult is that rare child actor who mercifully underplays the pathos of his role.
-
70Because a gradually thawing Will plays more to Grant's strengths, the second part of the film, helped as well by Rachel Weisz as a love interest, is much more fun. But it is still hard not to feel that this film is pushing us too hard, slickly trying to seem more honest than it actually is.
-
63Renders what should have been a wholly entertaining film into a timid, soggy near miss.
-
63It's hard to stomp on a movie that pulls together a rich lay-about, hippies, a punk girl and an Amnesty International worker in a sort of Peaceable Kingdom, but About a Boy shows the limits of affability.
-
60Wickedly funny and surprisingly sweet film may be the perfect star vehicle for Grant. He's full of piss and vinegar and has at long last set aside the wobbly, stammering persona best left at "Four Weddings and a Funeral."
-
60Will warm your heart without making you feel guilty about it.
-
60Pleasant and engaging, rather than laugh-out-loud funny or emotionally involving.
-
60The other Grant, the irresistible but slippery Cary, was called to account by such strenuous and willful mates as Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman. But Hugh Grant has never been matched with a woman who directly challenged his oddly recessive charm. [3 June 2002, p. 100]
-
50There's not much more to this adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel than charm -- effortless, pleasurable, featherweight charm.
-
30Since the central odd couple have no rapport, their bond never seems to progress past mutual usury.
-
25Was this spiritless stuff really directed by Paul and Chris Weitz of "American Pie" fame? How the rebels have mellowed!
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 44 out of 50
-
Mixed: 6 out of 50
-
Negative: 0 out of 50
-
8
-
6I have to admit that when any adaptation manages to stand side by side as an equal with the novel, it surprises me. â