For the first day of this assignment I decided to start out watching a movie. I chose About a Boy, adapted from a Nick Hornby novel and written by Peter Hedges. Its directed by Chris and Paul Weitz, and the only other movie I've seen that they've worked on is In Good Company, which I actually love.

The movie, interestingly enough, starts out in a monologue about a Bon Jovi quote, "No Man is an Island." Hugh Grant's character, Will, is a 38 year-old boy who lives off the royalties of a Christmas tune his father wrote in good 'ol 1958. He is a seemingly cool guy who sits at home all day and watches games shows and Xena: Warrior Princess. I think this character is original enough to catch interest in the beginning, but as the film continues you find out he's a typical movie character-- living life from woman to woman without ever seeming to have a single, genuine thought in his pointy-haired head.

Then, as if magically, a new person walks into his life that will radically transform all of Will's ideals. He's reluctant about it at first, but in the end the lead in the film will have a true change of character. Sounds like a lot of movies I've seen, the only difference is the gender and age of the person who shows Will what life is really about.

Instead of a beautiful, smart, charismatic woman that would often walk into the beginning of a film like this, setting the story in motion, a 12 year-old boy, Marcus, is introduced to Will when the boy's hippie mother tries to kill herself.

This is where the originality ends though. Will lies about being Marcus' father to impress a woman, then regrets when he falls for her. No kidding.

The best part of the film is the end for me, when Will fights traffic to save Marcus from making a fool of himself at a talent show. While on stage, crooning to Roberta Flack's "Killing me Softly," (which sounded so awful I thought it might kill me. No wonder Hugh Grant hasn't come out with an album like every other B-list actor in Hollywood. William Shatner anyone?) Will comes to the realization that it doesn't matter what you look like to other people as long as you mean what you're doing. It takes him 101 minutes to realize what every woman in his life has always told him--being superficial is no real way to live.

So after the talent show, Will and Marcus hold hands and skip down the street, thus ending another good-hearted, unrealistic movie.. Well okay, it didn't really happen like that, but it did end with a Christmas dinner with all the new mutual friends and family they've gained during the course of the film. Never seen that one before. I love how movie companies throw in a quick holiday dinner to fit into their December release schedules.

I did like some parts of the movie. I like the internal monologues that went on with Marcus and Will, especially when they were in a scene together. They're thoughts coincided a lot, but oftentimes had nothing whatsoever to do with what came out of their mouths. This seemed very real to me. Also, I think Hugh Grant and the no-named kid actor in the film had pretty good chemistry. I love Grant's dry, British sense of humor in movies, and I think the kid played well off of that. I also thought the filmography gave some different perspectives. There were a lot of dead, no action shots that left you to watch the characters and try to perceive what they were thinking. I thought it made the movie blend well, instead of moving from dialogue scene to dialogue scene--it left time to process it.

When I sat down to write this, I really thought I had enjoyed the movie. And I did, but enjoying something and thinking critically about it are different things.