Highs and lows. Director John Crowley has those on his resume. Brooklyn is one of the best movies about immigrants I’ve ever seen, but The Goldfinch took a Pulitzer Prize novel and turned it into hot garbage. We Live In Time walks between the two of those, but thankfully, is closer to Brooklyn. But that was always going to happen, when you cast two of the hottest most talented actors in the world playing your romantic leads. Let the swoon begin!
The movie goes through the major life moments in a very cute English couple, Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh). We see the roller coaster of their romance, and their lives together. Stuff every person will probably have to deal with: courtship, fights, having a baby, career, family, and eventually, what happens when someone gets sick. The only difference is, we see all these events nonlinearly, eliminating the flow of time as a way to watch a relationship unfold.
The nonlinear choice drives home We Live In Time’s main message: context matters. Tobias and Almut’s lives go through those big decisions every couple has to decide for themselves. What’s different here though is that those conversations aren’t one and done: they are constant, and always evolving depending on where in life each of them is. We see their adorable child Ella (with an even more real adorable name, Grace Delaney)…just minutes after Almut insists she doesn’t want kids to interfere with the chef career she’s building for herself. Tobias and Almut have fights over that conversation and almost break up over it a few times, but like all relationships built to last, they come back to their love and connection to each other as the most important thing they hold dear, and the cards will fall where they fall. It’s nice to see the script flipped here too, as the movie more revolves around Almut’s life, and her big decisions which Tobias eventually knows he can’t make for her, she’s in charge of her own choices and he knows/loves her enough to trust she’s thought through everything. This becomes more and more clear as the dark days come closer, and the couple has impossible choices to make as to how to spend those last days together.
To tell this story well enough that it doesn’t cliche, director Crowley needs two incredible actors at the top of their game to make the audience believe that they really fell in love with each other making this movie. Thankfully, casting delivered with Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. Garfield can play emotionally wrought in his sleep by now, but has also proven himself to be an incredible flirt with a great smile which he uses to woo Ms. Pugh. Looking around, the women in the audience were melting every time Garfield’s big eyes and adorable smile crossed the screen, and hearts were breaking when he’d start to cry, especially at a really sweet sad moment throwing out the trash. But he’s the 2nd fiddle here. This is Florence Pugh’s movie through and through, as all the major story points revolve around her. While all the ladies and gay men were fawning over Andrew Garfield, I was wishing and hoping I could be so lucky to meet someone special like Almut. Pugh makes this character complex through the emotional roller coaster the movie puts her on, handling each different set of good and bad news differently as the story wants her to, but with the same sardonic wit that’s very much a constant part of who she is. Pugh is best as the story goes for tears, making subtle smart choices to keep We Live In Time from succumbing to a Lifetime movie it could so easily have become.
The other big lesson of We Live In Time, is what the title says. So enjoy the moment. Go on that trip you might be on the fence about. Go try that restaurant the woman that hit you with her car invited you to. Or in my case, take the crazy job abroad in 2015 that would completely alter your life forever going forward. Just make sure whatever opportunity presents itself, big and small, you enjoy it while it’s happening, and be there with the people you care about.