Movies - About a Boy

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	Movies - About a Boy

About a Boy was filmed in 2002 by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz starring Nicholas Hoult (born 1989) as Marcus, Hugh Grant as Will, and Rachel Weisz as Rachel. An interesting aspect of the movie is the use of double voice-over narration, where, at crucial moments in the plot, the audience can follow Will's as well as Marcus's thoughts.

On the whole, the screenplay closely follows Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, but omits the scenes involving drugs. The novel's Royston episode is replaced by a scene depicting a school concert during which Marcus, to prevent his mother from trying to kill herself again, gives an unsuccessful solo performance of "Killing Me Softly" but is eventually joined by a guitar-playing Will. References to Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, and grunge music were replaced by rap music (Mystikal, particularly). The entire score to the movie, including several full songs and numerous incidental pieces, was composed by British indie songwriter Badly Drawn Boy.

Plot

Will Freeman (Hugh Grant), a man in his mid-thirties, lives in London. Years ago his father had written a prosperous Christmas song that fetches him enough royalties for a living. He compares himself to the party island Ibiza, because he thinks he is enjoying his life at its fullest. In fact, he keeps himself occupied doing meaningless things and has never had a relationship longer than two months. While his future friend is physically a boy, Will is one mentally. He refuses to take responsibility, and care for anybody apart from himself. Needless to say, spending time with each other starts to change both of them, Will in particular. Marcus is the first person Will can care for. It's a new experience for him.

Pretending he has a son Will joins a single parents' group called "SPAT" in order to meet single moms. There he comes across Fiona, who is an eccentric, vegetarian hippy, whose twelve year old son Marcus is a typical outsider, the kid in every school who dresses weird and has no friends. Gradually, Will and Marcus become friends, as Will teaches Marcus how to be a cool kid.

The boy spots that he doesn't have a kid at all, so he tries to make Will be friends with his depressive mother. One day, the "dead duck day", Will and Marcus go to the park and Marcus accidentally kills a duck (by throwing an entire loaf of bread at it). They return to his house, to discover that his mother has tried to kill herself. She is rushed to hospital, and recovers. Later on, Will and Marcus drift apart. The boy becomes friends with a rough girl at school and Will finds a new girlfriend, Rachel. Again, he pretends to have a son, this time he claims it was Marcus. Will tries to persuade the boy to feign he was, but he won't help him.

Fiona suffers from depression again and so her son tries to get help from Will. Since this is a serious problem, Will is clearly uncomfortable at the thought of trying to help and refuses. Marcus remembers that his mother always enjoyed to hear her son sing, so the boy arranges a solo of Killing Me Softly With His Song to sing at a school event.

As soon as Will finds out Marcus intends to perform this, he rushes to stop him, knowing that he will die of embarrassment. The man arrives just in time, but Marcus is already on stage, singing awfully high, out of tune and is about to get booed loudly. Will comes onto the stage, playing the guitar to accompany him. They win over the audience, including Fiona who's finally happy again, and Rachel, who succumbs to Will's charm.

Movie soundtrack

The movie soundtrack, also titled About A Boy was released in 2002. Unusually, the entire soundtrack was composed by one singer/songwriter, Badly Drawn Boy.

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