A funny, insightful, sweet film

Full Review | Jan 8, 2024

The film has tremendous star power, added to this fact, it's a remarkably warm and witty film, filmed with unique creativity and visual gusto, and a catchy soundtrack.

Full Review | Jun 12, 2021

The splendid effectiveness of 'About a Boy' lies fully in the precise work of adaptation that the Weitz brothers make of the original text. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Sep 4, 2019

In print. Hornby's story was lapped up by women. On screen, it looks likes the worst kind of unconvincing, unfelt schmaltz, and faintly misogynist in the subordination of its female characters to the needs of its male star. Come back, Richard Curtis.

Full Review | Jan 29, 2018

While the movie has some awkwardly executed scenes and slow spots... this is a comedy with a heart... It's funny, it's smart, it's poignant - and it's set on Planet Earth.

Full Review | May 24, 2017

...a thoroughly average piece of work...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 17, 2015

Even people who don't usually like Hugh Grant will be charmed by him in the scrappy, slightly scandalous comedy About a Boy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 10, 2014

The directors Paul and Chris Weitz -- the American Pie brothers -- have tried hard not to make a tearjerker, and at its best the movie is knowing and tart.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

If the story gets dangerously thin, Grant is pretty well flawless. And Collette, always good, is heartbreakingly believable.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

About a Boy is truly a love story, with dialogue and a story line that's both pop and universally timeless, which is gold for moviegoers.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 10, 2014

This is a pleasingly skewed Britcom that can be watched with mates or the other half. And, boy, is it funny.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 10, 2014

Genuinely funny and moving, this is both an endearing examination of masculinity and a challenge to male isolationism.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 10, 2014

Grant's puckishness has become overly packaged; what's new about him here is his spiky hairdo. This movie is built on an actor as well as a character who is too intent to be on his best behavior.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 10, 2014

Mainstream comedies should all be this funny and tender and deftly performed.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

Grant, seeming to get better the further he's allowed to extend his range, delivers a terrific central performance, as acerbic but more complex than his sexy snake in Bridget Jones.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

Hugh Grant hilariously redefines the word "playboy" in the first half of this film, then gets human, without losing his comic edge, under the influence of the title waif.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

About a Boy is better 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.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

Compared to High Fidelity, the book and the movie, About A Boy seems resolutely uncool.... But part of growing up may be admitting that such familiar comforts can also be immensely satisfying.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

About a Boy is an amusing film, full of bright lines and clever observation.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

This charming coming of age comedy, a tale with heart and social message, offers Hugh Grant his best role to date.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 18, 2013