CinemaClock Toronto

It was by chance that I saw this movie. Having come out the same day as Attack of the Clones, and with me being a hopeless Star Wars nerd, I paid little attention to the existence of About A Boy (as well as my job, my girlfriend, bathing, etc.) I only ended up at the AMC Forum on this particular Saturday night because it was raining a bit and I thought the fireworks would be canceled. I went there hoping to see Men In Black 2 on the board, but that wasn't too likely, since that over-rated, overblown, overpriced (VERY, EXTRAORDINARILY overpriced) palace of superficiality and land of the spotlighted ushers (do they still call them ushers?) the Paramount gets most of the blockbusters. At $13.50 on a regular night at the Paramount, I expect those kids on stage to do more for me than nervously announce the location of the exits and tell the audience to turn off their cell phones (PFFT! Like that's gonna happen), I expect a lift home. So, seeing that the only movies to see here that I had not yet watched were Mr. Deeds (which I would rather go blind than watch; I can count the number of Saturday Night Live alumni who are less talented than Sandler on my thumb: that alumnus being Tim Meadows) and About A Boy."About A Boy? " I said to my girlfriend in a shocked and surprisingly happy tone."That's still playing? Let's go see it." Thank you, oh heavenly rain. This movie was fabulous. It was funny, well-acted, and somewhat touching. Not only that, but it's one of those movies with a message that sticks. I won't forget it. I don't normally like Hugh Grant much, but I had to give him his props here; he played a real unscrupulous jerk. Toni Collette and the kid who played the boy were terrific as well. I could see the similarities in the writing styles and dialogue styles between this and "High Fidelity" although I was not the biggest fan of the latter. And best of all, I could understand the English. I get a bit worried when I see British films because sometimes the accents and slang are just a bit too much for me to make any sense of. Movies like Snatch and Trainspotting suffer from this to some degree. The worst was Sexy Beast. I still don't know what the hell they were all talking about. The damn movie needed subtitles. About A Boy was very British, but easily understood, which is good because what's the point of watching a movie if you can't understand what the actors are saying. Go see About A Boy. Skip Men In Black 2, it's not that great, and see About A Boy at the AMC Forum, QUICK before it's out of theatres... FOREVAH!!!

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