Even people who don't usually like Hugh Grant will be charmed by him in the scrappy, slightly scandalous comedy About a Boy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 10, 2014

The directors Paul and Chris Weitz -- the American Pie brothers -- have tried hard not to make a tearjerker, and at its best the movie is knowing and tart.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

Mainstream comedies should all be this funny and tender and deftly performed.

| Feb 10, 2014

Hugh Grant hilariously redefines the word "playboy" in the first half of this film, then gets human, without losing his comic edge, under the influence of the title waif.

| Feb 10, 2014

About a Boy is better than a feelgood movie, it's a feelgreat movie -- genuinely clever, affecting when you least expect it to be and funny from start to finish.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2014

Compared to High Fidelity, the book and the movie, About A Boy seems resolutely uncool.... But part of growing up may be admitting that such familiar comforts can also be immensely satisfying.

| Feb 10, 2014

Grant grows a heart in Hornby-book pic; teens+.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 2, 2010

Pleasant and engaging, rather than laugh-out-loud funny or emotionally involving.

| Feb 3, 2009

Few movies have made better use of Hugh Grant's shallow charm and amused befuddlement than this funny and well-paced adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-selling second novel.

| Feb 3, 2009

The first big studio movie of 2002 I didn't want to end.

| Nov 1, 2007

Admirably lacking in sentiment, this is a comedy-drama with a steady supply of laughs.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Hornby's crises and characters can be so facile, schematic and smugly moralistic that emotional substance can get overshadowed by fluff.

| Feb 9, 2006

Fans of the old rakishly seductive womaniser may have their allegiance strained... But I think [Grant] passes the test triumphantly.

| Dec 15, 2003

The movie occasionally strains for crowd-pleasing moments as it pumps up the drama toward the end, but it more than earns our indulgence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 20, 2002

There's not much more to this adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel than charm -- effortless, pleasurable, featherweight charm.

Full Review | Jun 1, 2002

In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance.

| May 30, 2002

I loved the novel and I love what they did with it.

Full Review | May 22, 2002

About a Boy is sophisticated and nuanced, and every character is bursting with emotional contradictions.

Full Review | May 19, 2002

It wants to make you smile, and grin, and then laugh with recognition, and it manages all three, again and again.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 19, 2002

About a Boy is not only hilarious, touching and wonderfully dyspeptic, it's grounds for Hugh Grant's canonization as the patron saint of all cads.

| May 17, 2002