The film "About A Boy" is based on Nick Hornby's best-selling novel, “About A Boy” and is, um, well, about a boy.  Actually it is about a boy (Nicholas Hoult), his suicidal Mom, a man who reluctantly befriends him (Hugh Grant), and a buncha’ other people.   Hornby also wrote "High Fidelity", which itself was a fairly successful movie starring John Cusack as the owner of a record shop who told us about his many failed relationships.  Some say the Hugh Grant character (Will Freeman) in “About a Boy” is the same character as in "High Fidelity".  I’m not sure they are similar characters, but their back stories are very different.  For example, Will Freeman doesn’t run a record shop, and in fact he doesn’t work at all.  His father wrote a Christmas song years ago, and the royalties are enough to keep Freeman in sports cars and cigarettes without his having to do anything at all.  His main exercise is playing pool and his hobby is loafing on his couch watching game shows on daytime TV.

      Marcus, the boy, is a seen as a total loser by his classmates.   He is fatherless and his pitiable  eclectic mother, a music therapist, is often crying and embarrassing him in one way or another.   Marcus, himself, is not athletic, dresses like a dweeb, and is so unpopular that the nerds and other outcasts ask him to stop hanging about with them.  Realizing that he is in a terrible situation, Marcus latches onto Will hoping that he will fall for his totally unattractive mother.  Of course that does not happen, can you imagine Hugh Grant and some goofy looking woman who is just a paycheck away from being a bag lady? 

      Will initially rejects and resents Marcus for interfering with his hedonistic lifestyle, but as time and events unfold… well, I think you can imagine.   There are no real surprises.  But, in spite of the basic premise – troubled boy and his goofy mom, helped by selfish confirmed bachelor -  the film is not some Disney remake.  It is not that simple.  It is funny, smart and fresh.