Further Details

Title: About A Boy/Notting Hill
Format: DVD
Condition: New
Number Of Discs: 2
Region Code: DVD: 2 (Europe, Japan, Middle East...)
Certificate: Unrated
Description: PRODUKTBESCHREIBUNGEN
PRODUKTBESCHREIBUNGEN
A box set of Hugh Grant comedies. In 'About a Boy' Grant takes the lead role as aimless, commitment-shy, thirtysomething Will in this adaptation of Nick Hornby's bestseller. Living on the royalties of a hit song his father wrote 40 years ago, Will drifts through life, moving from one relationship to the next with little lasting effect. But when he hits upon the new idea of dating single-mothers, he soon finds himself entangled with the suicidal Fiona (Toni Colette) and her 12-year-old-son Marcus (Nicholas Hoult). As he and Marcus gradually develop a friendship, Will begins to reassess the selfish life he has been living. 'Notting Hill' sees the team behind the hugely successful 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' return for this romantic comedy, which is now the biggest grossing British film of all time. Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) is the world's most famous movie star, whilst divorcée William Thacker (Grant) owns an ailing travel bookstore in his local neighbourhood of Notting Hill. One day Anna buys a book from William's shop and later collides messily with him on a street corner. She accompanies him home to clean herself up, and from there springs an unlikely romance. However, the path of true love is littered with obstacles, not least the media, the adoring fans and the differences in their lifestyles.

AMAZON
About a Boy

A box-office smash in England, About a Boy went on to charm the world as another fine adaptation (following High Fidelity) of a popular Nick Hornby novel. While High Fidelity transplanted its London charm to Chicago, this irresistible comedy was directed by Americans Chris and Paul Weitz (American Pie) with its British pedigree intact. Better yet, Hugh Grant is perfectly cast as Will, a self-absorbed trust-fund slacker who tries to improve his romantic odds by preying on desperate single mothers. His cynical strategy backfires when he recruits the misfit son (Nicholas Hoult) of a suicidal mother (Toni Collette) to pose as his own son, thus proving his parental prowess to his latest single-mom target (Rachel Weisz). The kid has a warming effect on this ultimate cad, and what could have been a sappy tearjerker turns into a subtle, frequently hilarious portrait of familial quirks and elevated self-esteem. From start to finish, it's a genuine treat. --Jeff Shannon

Notting Hill

They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hill anymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt to Roman Holiday, Notting Hill ponders what would happen if a beautiful, world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in London's fashionable Notting Hill district. Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into his heart. After another contrived meet-cute involving spilled orange juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.)

Smartly scripted by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hill is hardly realistic, but as wish fulfillment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen. The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo. --Mark Englehart

DVDs ARE REGION 2 UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

Playback Region 2 :This will not play on most DVD players sold in the U.S., U.S. Territories, Canada, and Bermuda. You will require a multi-region DVD player and a PAL compatible TV to view.

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