We Live in Time, 2024.
Directed by John Crowley.
Starring Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Grace Delaney, Lee Braithwaite, Aoife Hinds, Adam James, Douglas Hodge, Amy Morgan, Niamh Cusack, Lucy Briers, Robert Boulter, Nikhil Parmar, Kerry Godliman, Heather Craney, Matt Kennard, Sam Kennard, Laura Guest, Marama Corlett, Sue Wallace, Eliot Salt, Kevin Brewer, Fumilayo Brown-Olateju, and Roly Botha.
SYNOPSIS:
An up-and-coming chef and a recent divorcée find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together in a decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.
Juggling the narrative across three different points in time, director John Crowley (working with a screenplay from Nick Payne and collaborating with editor Justine Wright, the latter excelling across a seemingly impossible task) makes his intentions remarkably clear with the attempted tear-jerker romance We Live in Time. For a film that offers zero handholding maneuvering between these timelines from scene to scene, that clarity in the storytelling feels like a tremendous accomplishment, albeit one within a formulaic film that seems to have started with the idea of juxtaposing happy and sad moments in life and relationships (gradually escalating that joy and pain as each timeline progresses), and not much else.
Each timeline represents a different stage in the relationship of Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield), as well as the peaks and valleys that come with it. This ranges from an amusing meet cute involving a car accident, career aspirations, plenty of shagging, bringing a child into the world, and ovarian cancer. That’s also a rough outline of the narrative, but again, it is jumbled up and presented in a nonlinear structure.
There isn’t much of an emotional pull for much of the running time, and that’s not entirely due to the unorthodox narrative structure. We Live in Time is one of those movies about two impossibly attractive people coming together mainly because they are Hollywood gorgeous, settling into a rather bland romance that falls into the trap of making them too perfect for one another.
Then, there is one of the only arguments they get into, which comes about when Almut insists she doesn’t see herself having children one day, something that’s important to Tobias. The film uses this as an opportunity to cut to a happy family moment with that future child, something that comes across as almost propagandistic in its conservative messaging. JD Vance would approve.
Thankfully, Tobias isn’t right about everything and has some soul-searching to do when it comes to taking Almut’s chef career more seriously, especially when she is invited to participate in a prestigious culinary competition while enduring chemotherapy; his mind is a bit narrow-focused on family and passiveness in her sickness, not comprehending how important this occupation is to her. Aside from that, this is nearly 2 hours of watching a near-perfect relationship that only stumbles into roadblocks because of unforeseen circumstances such as cancer.
Life is something to be appreciated in its unpredictability, beautifully demonstrated with a dreamlike score from Bryce Dessner. While Almut and Tobias unquestionably make a cute couple, there is an emptiness to the characterization in this film, expecting the nonlinear structure and accompanying juxtapositions to do the emotionally manipulative heavy lifting. Admittedly, that is certainly more interesting than watching a film charge headfirst into overblown sentimentality, but the trade-off here is minimal.
Considering that Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh give solid performances and know how to convey the impression of an ideal, perfect romance, not to mention be funny when the film calls for it, it’s frustrating how little there is under the surface. We Live in Time is less of a compelling story and more of an editing gimmick where the purpose is painfully blunt and quickly wears out its welcome.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
