Classic--About a Boy

or: Hugh Grant can be in a good comedy!

One word to sum it up: Charming.

Yes...I did watch About a Boy mainly because it stars a young Nicholas Hoult. But I do remember that this movie's poster started my first ever crush on Hugh Grant. We had it hung up in our classroom when I was nine years old, and my wee heart just swooned at his blue eyes. So basically, that poster and Hugh Grant had a lot to do with me growing up and falling in love with celebrities who have no idea that I exist. Who would have thought that five years later I'd be in love with the other boy on the poster, Nicholas Hoult?!

Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) is a hip Londoner who one day realizes that his friends are all involved with the responsibilities of married life and that leaves him alone in the cold. Passing himself off as a single father, he starts to meet a string of single mums, confident in his ability to leave them behind when they start to ask for a commitment. But Will's hope of a continued bachelorhood is interrupted when he meets 12-year old Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), in many ways his complete opposite.

I don't quite know what I expected from About a Boy. I always saw Hugh Grant as the guy who stars in all these British rom-coms (none of which I have seen) and hasn't particularly stretched himself too far from that persona. So my expectations were somewhat low for this film. However, I really and truly loved this movie. I actually found myself laughing out loud throughout most of it, which is usually hard for me to do. It's an utterly charming and original comedy, which is deeply heartfelt and finds the kid in all of us. Strangely, the audience could easily connect with this film, which is why it is so successful in winning you over.

Hugh Grant is impossibly great in this film, playing his character so he was as cynical as is humanly possible. The voice overs used in this film provide a funny and often insightful look into what is going on in his and Marcus's head, which is perhaps why the audience connects so well. Nicholas Hoult is also a revelation in his role, because when you look at how young he is, you could be amazed at what he is capable of. Toni Collette is wonderful as always, and Rachel Weisz reminds us all why she is probably the perfect woman for anyone. Had it not been for the clever script that made this film, About a Boy could have just been another story about a cynic changing his life. Luckily, it's not. It's much more than your average comedy.


THE VERDICT: About a Boy is a charming and sweet tale of a cynic and a bullied boy, which will often have you in fits of laughter, but will have you in tears and finding it's way into you heart.

10/10

Rewind--The Black Balloon

or: The Australian version of What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

One word to sum it up: Heart-breaking.

Usually, I tend not to watch Australian films. Maybe it's because of this love/hate relationship we have with the country here in New Zealand, or maybe it's because their films have always been meddling in the over-dramatic stuff. The Black Balloon, on a whole, didn't surprise me, as it was very Australian. That aside, this is a film which anyone could have made, but the Australian's seemed to have done it right.

Thomas (Rhys Wakefield) is a normal kid. His mother (Toni Collette) is pregnant, and his family has just moved to a new town. His brother, Charlie (Luke Ford), is severely autistic. When Thomas is put in charge of Charlie, he has to live with the embarrassments Charlie makes of him in public, and also the fact that Charlie makes trouble when Thomas is out with the girl he is in love with, Jackie (Gemma Ward). Thomas just wants to be normal, but is that possible with Charlie around?

While watching The Black Balloon, I found so many similarities to What's Eating Gilbert Grape that I was beginning to wonder if it was just an Australian rehash of that film. It's not, really, because The Black Balloon seems to be more of a family drama. One thing the Australian's are good at it making believable family portraits which we can all relate to, instead of succumbing to the wildly outrageous American stereotypes. Beneath the family drama, this film is a naive romance and conjures up the theme of friendship, too. It never becomes schmaltzy and never asks the viewer to feel for the characters, because you just do. Never once would you feel like the script is trying too hard to get emotional, or trying too hard to get you to cry. It's natural fragility and thought-provoking material makes this a film which is hard to slam down.

Luke Ford impresses the most, using the Method to perfectly create Charlie in a performance as worthy as Leonardo DiCaprio's in WEGG. Rhys Wakefield and Gemma Ward both ooze out the innocence of youth and do some pretty sweet performing. Toni Collette, as always, shines. The Black Balloon will dive you into sadness and loneliness, but ultimately you will come out of the film smiling. It doesn't ask for much, just an open-minded watch. Do that and this little indie should take you places the average American family drama can't.


THE VERDICT: A geniunely sweet yet harrowing coming-of-age story, which is tender but never too schmaltzy. Excels as a family based drama.

8/10