| Welcome to the Now Playing Reviews Database where
you can find our opinion of films which have had a cinema release in the UK.
Each of these movies are reviewed from a gay perspective, giving them
both an overall star rating plus our exclusive gay rating. The more stars out of a possible 10, the
better the film; similarly the more pink triangles, the greater the gay interest. A full list of
all our reviews appears below, and this week's current films are found on the Now Playing Main Page.
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About A Boy Movie Rating: 
Polished Comedy-Drama
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| Believing that single mothers have low romantic expectations, womanizing bachelor Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) claims to have a kid, so he can join a single parents support group and hit on a bunch of desperate mums. After a group member (Toni Collette) attempts suicide, her 12-year-old son Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) uses his knowledge of Will's lie to blackmail him into being his friend. Things get messy when Will persuades Marcus to pose as his son so he can then woo divorced mom Rachel (Rachel Weisz). |
 Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and Hugh Grant in About A Boy. Courtesy of Universal Pictures. |
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Based on Nick Hornby's best-seller, this comedy-drama boasts a consistent
self-deprecating humour, many gut-busting laughs, and some fine performances.
Grant makes sexist boorishness unbelievably charming, and Hoult is cute,
and not obnoxiously so. Co-directors Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz make
everything a little too polished, so this film is a pleasant diversion, though
not terribly challenging.
Gay Interest: Grant played gay in the film version of gay author E.M.Forster's Maurice. In the glam rock musical Velvet Goldmine, Collette played a woman caught between two bisexual lovers, and Weisz had a tiny role as a prostitute in the concentration-camp drama Bent. As an actor, Chris Weitz played the object of obsession in the gay-themed Chuck & Buck. The Weitz brothers also had small roles in The Broken Hearts Club. | |
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