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Review
This is a simple comedy drama
that is short on story but has enough big laughs to make it worthwhile. It
has elements of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Bridget Jones's Diary”
about it but doesn’t quite match up to
these. It touches on some serious issues like depression, suicide, school
bullying and broken families but pulls back from developing these in any
great detail. After all it is a comedy! However the message of being your
own person and accepting that sometimes you just can’t please everyone
is well made. There were a few times when the film could have fallen into
the “sentimentality trap” but thankfully these traps were skilfully
manoeuvred around.
The film is heavily dependent
on Hugh Grant’s performance. It is a familiar role for him and he plays
the English “twit” perfectly! Grant
provides the biggest laughs and it is fair to say that his performance
lifts the film out of the ordinary.
Nicholas Hoult plays
12-year-old Marcus and I felt that he looked less than comfortable in some
of his scenes. He has a major part in the film and perhaps the pressure of
this took its toll.
Toni Collette (Muriel’s
Wedding) plays Marcus’ mother and maybe her part could have been
“beefed up” to add more comedy.
Lasting
thought: You might want to be an island but every so often you have to
visit the mainland!
Reviewed by Niall Quinn,
Premier Movie Reviews 2002 |