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Poster for About a Boy

Coming of Age

About a Boy

A proudly unattached Londoner invents a child to enter single-parent circles, then finds his carefully empty life disrupted by an awkward twelve-year-old and his struggling mother.

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Year
2002
Runtime
101 min
Rating
PG-13
Director
Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz

Hugh Grant turns practiced charm into a defense mechanism, and the film lets both an adult and a child grow without sanding away their awkwardness or pain.

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Trailer

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Themes

  • Chosen family
  • Emotional responsibility
  • Loneliness
  • Masculinity
  • Growing up at any age

Tone

  • Witty
  • Breezy
  • Bittersweet
  • Humane

Research provenance

  • AFI Catalogcanonical_title, director, genres, release_year, runtime, teaser, themes, tone, why_watch
  • BBFCkey_cast, release_year, runtime
  • Rotten Tomatoesaudience_rating, canonical_title, content_rating, critic_rating, director, genres, key_cast, runtime, teaser, themes, tone, why_watch
  • Wikipediagenres
  • Wikipediaposter
  • YouTubetrailer