In the last edition of The Bridge magazine was published an article about a film „About a Boy“ and about it’s book pattern. Because we found it interresting, we decided to give you a summary of it.
About a Boy is an adaptation of an eponymous book written by Nick Hornby. This author had already written many other books, that were later filmed. For example we can name „Fever Pitch“, „High Fidelity“ or „A long Way Down“. The Film was directed by the Weitz brothers (American Pie, New Moon). The main characters were played by Hugh Grant (Notting Hill, Love Actually), Rachel Weisz (The Fountain, Constantine), Toni Collette (Sixth Sense, The Hours) and Nicholas Hoult. As a little bit of information about the film, we add an official text of the ditributors:
„Twelve year old Marcus Brewer lives with his chronically depressed single mother, Fiona Brewer. Both Fiona and Marcus beat to their own respective drummers. Marcus will do whatever he can to make his depressed mother happy, even if it causes himself grief. As such, he realizes that he is perceived as different than most kids, as even the self-professed weird kids don't want to hang out with him as he is the target of bullying. Part of the taunts against him are the fact that he sings and speaks to himself without even realizing that he is doing it. Meanwhile, thirty-eight year old Will Freeman is a slacker who has lived comfortably off the royalties of a song written by his deceased father, and as such has never had to work a day in his life. He is a solitary man who places himself as the first and only priority in life. He comes across the idea that dating single moms meets his selfish carnal needs... “
In a comparison with the book, film holds strictly to it’s pattern for almost the whole plot. Except the ending, it differs a little in each version. Although some parts had to be errased, due to fact, that the film is only 97 minutes long. But Nick Hornby himself seems to be sattisfied with adaptation, same way as the film critics.
Film is well rated in the whole world. It’s screenplay was nominated for Oscar and it was awarded with 7,4 stars out of 10 on IMDB – International Movie Database.