I LOOVE the Hugh Grant

I will admit, freely and without shame, that I am a Hugh Grant fan. I tend to enjoy most movies that he is in (Nine Months nearly killed me)(um, with laughter), and if I don't necessarily enjoy the movie itself, I at least enjoy him. He always seems to do a good job with his roles.
So why the sudden confession, you may ask. Well, I just had the pleasure of watching for the second or third time the greatest movie that he has ever made: About A Boy. There are so many things about this movie that just work. The music, done by Badly Drawn Boy for the most part, sets the perfect mood for everything that happens in the movie. The cinematograhpy is interesting, especially the overhead scenes where the camera turns, and the scene where a character walks towards the camera and as he passes it, it follows him, ending upside down.
But those aren't the real reasons that I like this movie. I like the movie because the characters are pretty sweet, and the actors really nail them. Hugh Grant plays a guy whose dad wrote a hit song and so he lives off of the royalties, looking for women to shag. That is his entire life. And then he meets Marcus and things start to change; he begins to care about something beyond himself. Of course there are misunderstandings and difficulties along the way, which lead to the fantastic comedy. There were so many times where I just had to laugh at how much of a jerk that Hugh Grant actually was. He was a complete jackass, especially towards the ladies. The worst part was when he decided that he should start pursuing single mothers because they would be easy targets. So he invents a child and starts trying to date Suzie, who is a friend of Marcus' mother. And then, when Marcus' mum tries to kill herself, somehow Will (Hugh Grant) gets dragged into the whole situation until suddenly he finds that he cares about Marcus, something that he had never experienced before.
There were so many ways that this movie could have gone wrong. They could have overplayed the comedy, or oversexed it, or, worst of all, gave in to the absolutely cheesy ending that one has come to expect from many movies. Instead, the balance between comedy and serious is struck very well. It is not a movie that is full of hilarious knee-slapping moments (though the old lady at the Christmas dinner was pretty fun); instead it works the humour in subtly and naturally. Everything that is funny is not only completely in character, but completely believable. And even though Will is a womanizer, there is no sex at all in the movie. Not even implied, really, except for the occasional kiss. It really wouldn't have fit in the movie at all, and it wasn't there. Finally, the ending was very good. Marcus doesn't end up dating the girl he has a crush on, and Will doesn't fall in love with Marcus' mom. Yet, somehow they are all family. There is also Rachel Weisz, another single mother that Will wants to date. But, due to Marcus' influence, this time it is different. He actually likes this woman and wants a less physical relationship than normal. And when push comes to shove, he actually admits that he doesn't have a son (at this point, Marcus was masquerading as his firstborn), which wrecks the relationship for a while, until she sees later that he is not as vapid and meaningless as he may have seemed. At the end, he is dating her, and friends with Marcus and his mom, and Marcus is friends with Rachel's son, who seems to be dating the girl that Marcus had a crush on, though that is only lightly implied at the end.
There are many little moments that work together to make this movie wikkidcool. I love that they come to the conclusion that no man is an island, but that everyone needs backup, in the words of Marcus.
That is so true...