Making connections

Nick Hornby's novel About a Boy brings together Will, a wealthy 30-something bachelor, with Marcus, a 12-year-old who's alienated at school and miserable at home, where his depressed single mother attempts suicide. The idea is that Will, a big kid himself, can instruct Marcus on the basics of how to be a teenager. It's a good setup for a comic novel, and the narrative strategy--alternating between Will's perspective and Marcus's--is clever. Even though Hornby positions Will to score points against his empty lifestyle (Marcus ends Will's emotional isolation), the book stays fairly companionable until Hornby stops trying to disguise the life lessons he's imparting.

Aside from updating the setting from 1993 to the present--an alteration that requires a new dramatic climax--the movie is faithful to the book--faithful to a fault. Paul and Chris Weitz, who co-directed, and Peter Hedges, their collaborator on the script, rely on Hornby's voice-overs as a substitute for the work filmmakers are supposed to do: giving each scene a dramatic arc and using the camera in tandem with the dialogue to build character. About a Boy is so literal-minded that it feels clunky and unformed. American Pie, the teen comedy that put the Weitzes on the map, was far more sophisticated and original.

There's another problem. The script lays bare Hornby's agenda very early on. The result is that About a Boy preaches to the audience in a way American Pie never did. Creating a good coming-of-age story requires sleight of hand. We want the hero (or heroes) to learn a moral lesson, but if it's presented too baldly we feel we're being treated like schoolchildren.