Film Review - We Live in Time
Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield delight in John Crowley's poignant romantic weepie
I don’t know quite why We Live in Time got under my skin the way it did. I wouldn’t say it is brilliant, but it is unusually good, or at least it must be to have provoked such an emotional reaction in yours truly. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for old-fashioned romantic weepies, especially as they seem increasingly rare these days. Or it could be that my adoration of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh is such that I love watching anything they’re in. Either way, please take this review with a pinch of salt because I don’t want to suggest this is a masterpiece. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I loved it.
Screenwriter Nick Payne and Brooklyn (2015) director John Crowley aren’t necessarily saying anything particularly deep or new here. In fact, much of the story is clichéd and predictable, despite the mashed-up chronology, Christopher Nolan style. It could also be argued that in going the Nolan route, key revelations and dramatic climaxes normally expected in the finale of such a film are deployed earlier, ultimately rendering the conclusion a tad anticlimactic. Therefore, it isn’t a spoiler to reveal that Florence Pugh’s character, ambitious chef and restaurant owner Almut, battles with cancer in the film. This occurs early (and indeed is seen in the trailer), but chronologically, this is much later.
The rest of the narrative concerns Andrew Garfield’s divorced Weetabix representative, Tobias Durand, and how he meets Almut. She hits him with his car (again, as seen in the trailer) amid an amusing set-up I won’t spoil (as it isn’t in the trailer). They hit it off (if you’ll forgive the joke), and a whirlwind romance ensues. Narrative jiggery-pokery reveals they’ll eventually have a child together, Ella (Grace Delaney), and that Almut will compete in the cooking competition Bocuse d’Or (a kind of culinary Olympics), regardless of her cancer-related challenges. Again, snippets of all this are seen early in the film and are revealed in the trailer, so this is not a violation of my spoiler code.
What I won’t reveal are the precise circumstances concerning the key ups and downs of Almut and Tobias’s relationship. Much of this is hugely engaging, with one stand-out scene in a petrol station simultaneously stressful, darkly hilarious, and moving. In a film like this, casting is vital, and Pugh and Garfield are simply wonderful. Spending time in their company is a delight, and by the end of the film, I was sorry to leave them.
Perhaps this is why I got a bit emotional. Or it might have been Crowley’s deft direction, combined with Stuart Bentley’s cinematography, and the way editor Justine Wright deployed that gradual dissolve from the ice rink scene to the countryside (it’ll make sense when you see it). Or maybe it was Bryce Dressner’s poignant music score. Either way, I’m sorely tempted to see We Live in Time again, even if it isn’t destined for greatness.
(Originally published at Medium.)
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