“This is based on the novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, which I read about six months ago and enjoyed on the whole. Hugh Grant is excellent as the non-working, rather shallow but immensely likeable Will. Nicholas Hoult is his 12-year-old co-star, as the all-too-responsible Marcus with a flaky mother. Marcus is decidedly uncool and gets bullied at school, and Will comes into his life after inventing a two-year-old son, a ploy that allows him to meet single mothers.

As with the book, this is an interesting mixture of pathos and humour. Near tragedy combines with some very amusing moments. Towards the end, the film did rather veer away from the plot of the book (unless I have entirely forgotten some parts of it, which is entirely possible) but it works well. More thought-provoking than a lot of modern films of this genre, and very well done.

I even watched the extras: the deleted scenes gave more that was in the book, but I can see they were not necessary for the film, and the ‘making of’ was reasonably interesting. "