The movie is based on a novel by English author Nick Hornby, who also wrote the screenplay and produced the movie.

What I love about Will is that he has no depth - none! Hornby has stripped away any depth Will could have. He's got no family, no close friends, and not even employment (he is living off the royalties of a very popular Christmas song his father wrote). He spends his days chasing women, watching TV and very carefully grooming himself, or paying others to do it for him.

And he is perfectly happy with his life the way it is. His motto is "Man is an Island" and he is prepared to live and die by that.

Will's shallow nature is underlined in an opening scene when one of his few friends asks him to be godfather to their baby daughter. Instead of politely accepting like any normal person, Will refuses emphatically.

Will's relationships last a few weeks, and then he gets bored and dumps the unsuspecting female. This all changes when Will starts dating a single mother. Just when Will is about to break up with her, she dumps him because she is not ready to commit. Will realizes he has hit a gold mine. Why be the dumper, when you can be the dumpee.

The only problem is how to meet single women? Will starts going to a single parent support group, inventing a two-year-old son. But instead of finding a cache of datable single women, Will gets a young 11-year-old boy showing up on his doorstep.

Will met Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) when his date brought another single mom's son along. When they bring Marcus home, they find his mother collapsed on the floor from a drug overdose. His mother Fiona (Toni Collette) recovers from her suicide attempt, Marcus does not. Instead of going home after school Marcus starts showing up uninvited to Will's house.

Will grudgingly lets Marcus into his house and into his life. What he finds is a sad boy, who not only struggles at home but at school. Will tries to help Marcus by buying him things but what Marcus really needs is a friend.

Not long after Will meets Rachel (Rachel Weisz), yet another single mom with her own 11-year-old. Will really falls for Rachel and quickly realizes that his shallow life will not impress her. So he lets her assume that the 11-year-old Marcus is his son. This of course is a big mistake. Rachel finds out the truth and feels betrayed by the lies.

When Fiona and Will have a fight about Marcus' well being, Fiona forbids Marcus to see Will anymore. This leaves Will where he started, an island. He is alone, peaceful and undisturbed, but his few months of companionship make him realize how empty that life is.

This movie does a great job of bringing the viewer along on Will's journey. At first his life seems glamorous, his house stylish and Will attractive. But once Will is left alone after Marcus and Rachel have left, we see that his life is nothing. How can sitting on a couch be fulfilling. And Will has nothing in his life to fill that void.

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