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About A Boy | 2002 | PG-13 | - 3.3.5
A superficial, shallow and wealthy man (Hugh Grant) who does absolutely nothing with his life, means nothing to anybody and cares about no one, is put to the test when a 12-year-old boy (Nicholas Hoult) and his suicidal mother (Toni Collette) come into his life. Based on Nick Hornby's novel. Also with Rachel Weisz and Isabel Brook. [1:45]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - While there are no scenes of sex or nudity, a man spends much of his time pursuing unencumbered sexual relationships, developing schemes and fictional lives that ingratiate him with different women. A woman climbs onto a man's lap and they kiss passionately. A man and woman kiss a few times and a man hugs a woman. A woman wears an outfit that exposes her bare back, and a woman wears a shirt that exposes her cleavage. A group of women discuss their ex-husbands' infidelities in a support group meeting. A girl puts her arm around a boy. A man talks to a 12-year-old boy about sex. There is sexual innuendo: a man says to a woman: "my place or yours," a woman says "I slept with his father and 9 months later..."
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VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A woman lies unconscious on a sofa with a puddle of vomit on the floor next to her (she had tried to commit suicide and her young son discovered her). A duck is hit by a large loaf of bread and we see the duck belly-up in a pond. A boy yells at another boy and threatens him. We see a couple of fight scenes from "Xena: Warrior Princess" on a TV and two women fight some men with kicking and punching (not much is really discernible). A boy is hit in the head with a ball and a man is hit in the head with a ball. Schoolmates tease and abuse a boy in several scenes: they call him names, insult him, laugh at him, chase him, throw things at him and steal his shoes. There is a lot of tension caused by a young boy feeling the need to keep his mother from trying to commit suicide.
LANGUAGE 5 - 2 F-words, 8 sexual references (many of which are British and may be unfamiliar to U.S. audiences), 17 scatological terms, 7 anatomical terms, 30 mild obscenities (many of which are also British), 23 religious exclamations, name-calling.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Fitting in, family commitment, superficiality, loneliness, single motherhood, relationships, infidelity, insanity, depression, divorce, dignity, jealousy (a young boy appears very jealous that his mother is becoming involved with a man), fantasies.
MESSAGE - You have to have people who care about you, and people you care about, in order to get through life.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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