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About a Boy. .

Article Excerpt
Produced by Tim Bevan, Robert De Niro, Brad Epstein, Eric Fellner and Jane Rosenthal; directed by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz; screenplay by Peter Hedges II, Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, based on the novel by Nick Hornby; cinematography by Remi Adefarasin; production design by Jim Clay; edited by Nick Moore; costume design by Joanna Johnston; original music by Badly Drawn Boy; starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, Sharon Small. Madison Cook, Nicholas Hutchinson and Nicolas Hoult. Color, 101 mins. A Universal Pictures release.

About a Boy might seem a strange project from Chris and Paul Weitz, the men who brought you American Pie, The Nutty Professor II (The Klumps), and Antz. This slightly dark film, based on an even grittier novel by British writer Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), for the most part eschews the over-the-top slapstick, special effects, and animation that characterize the Weitzes' earlier works. In its place are detailed character studies, a concern for the physical and emotional texture of everyday life, and eventually, a warm, smothering blanket of sentimentality. Yet a certain thematic coherence does link all these films-a fascination with the trials and tribulations of growing up, a concern with disjointed families, and a slightly skewed view of a system that reduces people to commodities.

In reality, and despite the singular tide, not one but two 'boys' dominate the story. On its surface, the word more obviously refers to the adolescent Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), a social outcast trapped between days of constant bullying at school and evenings...