An important change experienced by a character in the film About A Boy directed by Chris and Paul Weitz is shown by Will, played by Hugh Grant changing from a shallow, lazy, emotionally stunted grown up

Describe an important change experienced by a character or individual in the text. Explain how verbal and / or visual features showed you that this change was important to the character or individual.

An important change experienced by a character in the film “About A Boy” directed by Chris and Paul Weitz is shown by Will, played by Hugh Grant changing from a shallow, lazy, emotionally stunted grown up to a more mature man as he develops adult-like relationships, all due to the added responsibility of playing ‘big brother’ for Marcus played by Nicholas Hoult.

The film is about two boys; Will and Marcus. Will is 38 year old ‘boy’ who lives a life of luxury. He is basically a ‘grown up’ kid who has everything he wants. But Marcus on the other hand is 12, an actual boy who is a little socially inept and awkward, not fitting too well at school. Before the relationship between Will and Marcus starts to develop, Will is imaged as a shallow, lazy and emotionally stunted grown up. An evidence of this is that he does not have a job, joined a club called Single Parents Alone Together (SPAT) so he could date single mothers and hates the whole idea of Christmas because he gets tortured by the horrible memories from childhood. Will is simply a care-free and self-indulged man who doesn’t care about anything but himself. His relationship with Marcus is the catalyst for him to come to this point of realisation and he admits this to himself. When he says “Me, I didn’t mean anything, about anything, to anyone,” the audience realises too. But after his relationship between him and Marcus grows stronger, he becomes a different man. When he talks to himself “Once you open your door to one person, anyone can some in,” the audience realises that there is going to change in Will’s attitude towards things and the change actually occurs. He is no longer shallow; he does not want to date single mothers for fun but actually wants to be in a good relationship with a woman named Rachel. He is no longer emotionally stunted by the torturing memories of childhood Christmas; he changes his mind about Christmas after he has Christmas dinner with Marcus. He changes from a care-free and self-indulged man to a more sensible, mature and deep person. Will realises the change too and says “Everyman is an island. I stand by that. But clearly some men are island CHAINS. Underneath they are connected.”