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movie review - About a Boy

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I was a bit leery about this one, but it turned out to be quite worthwhile. It's about a man who does nothing with his days other than spend the royalties from his dad's Christmas song and fritter away the 'units' of his day (a unit is roughly half an hour). He meets the lonely son of a suicidal woman, and the two of them form a friendship. This is a character movie with real characters, and it's a damn good change from the usual tales where someone gets magically shown the way through finding the love of his life or some crud ("that cherished myth").

It's an odd film, with strange pacing and some grindingly realistic bits thrown into the otherwise movie-surreality that marks the medium. I recommend it.

Recommended.