It hasn't been easy for Hugh Grant to shake off the image of the quintessentially languid English fop-with-a-fringe.

Four Weddings and Notting Hill basically cast him in concrete while Bridget Jones's Diary went someway into shifting his stereotypical image.

This should banish forever the public perception of him as a stuttering aristo ill-versed to deal with affairs of the heart.

It's quite simply Grant's best performance to date, helped a lot by a literate script and uniformly excellent performances, especially from young newcomer Nicholas Hoult.

Grant plays Will, an incurably hip young Londoner who callously discovers that one surefire way of meeting women is by attending a single parent help group.

Together with his phantom son Ned, Will is soon chatting up Susie (Victoria Smurfit), who introduces him to 12-year-old Marcus, the son of her friend Fiona (Muriel's Wedding's Toni Collette).

Marcus's lot is not a happy one - he's forced by his hippie chick mum to dress up in ethnic headgear and is consequently held up for ridicule at school.

He takes a shine to an unreciprocating Will and when he follows him to his state-of-the-art bachelor pad discovers Ned's father isn't really a father at all.

Seizing this piece of information, he tells Will he won't say anything about his non-existent son if he'll let him come round after school and watch TV.

Slowly, the pair come to a sort of accommodation but the selfish Will's attitude changes when he discovers a sense of wellbeing by making Marcus happy.

Then Rachel arrives in Will's life. Another single mum, Will lets her convince herself that Marcus is, in fact, his real son. But he soon realises the lying will have to stop.

Directors Paul and Chris Weitz couldn't be further away from the fratboy humour of American Pie with this thoroughly English comedy of manners.

The humour is a lot more sophisticated than Four Weddings or even Bridget Jones with Nick Hornby's source novel providing well rounded, believable characters.

Hoult is not your typical child star, boasting a barnet last seen in The Name of the Rose and also a manner a world away from your typically brattish American boy actor.

But it's Grant who really shows when he can do when he's given a meaty role. His Will super subtly makes the change from self-obsessed loner to sympathetic team player without putting a foot wrong.

Tim Evans