About Time (Richard Curtis)

[Henry Gale]

IMDb

[Henry Gale]

Saw this over a week ago, and I'm very two minds about it, but overall it definitely worked for me.

It's deeply flawed, even in its vague time travel rules, awkward real world consequences of it, how it operates as a catalyst for subplots and gags, and also how a lot of it the plotting feels like an almost overly tightened, shrunken down second draft that decided to keep its favourite moments that may not entirely make sense but by adding a very nonchalant tone to its time-bending abilities, allowed them to stick around and define its emotional core.

So yeah, it's sentimental as fuck, but honestly, those elements coming into play the way they do was almost where the film began to really win me over. When you hear that, you probably think something really bad is going to happen to McAdams that Gleeson Jr. can't undo, but that gets to where it almost subverted my expectations of it in terms of genre and overall focus. I hadn't seen any marketing for it outside of a few short flashes of scenes and posters, and obviously they're going to market it with the Love Actually / Four Weddings angling, but it's not really a romantic comedy at all, especially after about the halfway point. It's a very Curtis-y family drama by the way of a sci-fi musing he might have had about a script he was otherwise struggling to find a unique hook for. Gleeson's relationship with the Bill Nighy father character is very much the backbone of the film, even if it spends a lot of time shifting the focus to him manipulating his way to falling in love with his super cool time travel powers. Until it doesn't, and then embarks on richer ideas.

It shouldn't work, but it does. The time travel really almost plays as a convenience for the story to go however it wants at any given moment and give every possibility for a scene a go, but even when I was annoyed by the mechanics of certain sequences, I would find myself emotionally pulled in and even sometimes genuinely choked up by them. I thought the way it often glazed over major storytelling pieces I would check out of it, but then appreciated it for downplaying and even forgoing big cliche rom-com bullet points by moving along at the pace it does. It doesn't make much technical sense, but it spends so much of its energy wearing (and flaunting) its heart on its sleeve that it was hard for me to dislike, though all of it is such a shaky balance at times that I can easily understand people hating it.

I guess your enjoyment of it might just depend entirely on your tolerance of Curtis' unabashed schmaltz. But even then, as much as I really liked Love Actually when I was younger, the short bits I've stumbled upon in recent holiday seasons have made me wary as to how much both its artistic value and my childhood innocence have held up. Curtis has said this might be his last film, and that makes sense in the way that it feels like he's once again packed every last filmic idea into this, and even then it feels like an edited down mini-series.

So maybe if he move his new efforts to television they would breathe a little bit more, but I'd also hate for him to keep a story going so long that he feels the need to modify his instincts, because more often than not, they really do work for me.

*** / B-

[Thirdmango]

This is one of the movies that I'm thinking I'll probably love. I'll be seeing it as soon as it becomes available here.

[Henry Gale]

This is one of the movies that I'm thinking I'll probably love. I'll be seeing it as soon as it becomes available here.

I found it too frequently problematic to outright love, and yet, somehow, I still had a genuine emotional reaction to it stronger than most other movies that do a lot more to objectively earn it. Maybe I just got exhausted from working out all of the plot holes and time travel anomalies in it that I gave up using anything but the the vulnerable, effusive side of my brain to take the gushy third act in to full effect.

Also, I recently listened to Kermode's review, and his thoughts are eerily verbatim to conversations and assessments I expressed after I saw the movie:

[eternity]

Rachel McAdams sure has the market for time-travel based romance films locked up.

[Thirdmango]

I knew going in that I would love this movie but it exceeded my expectations. I really liked how simple the time travel was in explanation. The movie assumed the person watching this has seen other time travel movies so it doesn't spend much time on how time travel works. Just that in this particular instance it does. It really helped that the main character wasn't insanely attractive. Right now this is my second favorite movie of the year.

[Fezzik]

I knew going in that I would love this movie but it exceeded my expectations. I really liked how simple the time travel was in explanation. The movie assumed the person watching this has seen other time travel movies so it doesn't spend much time on how time travel works. Just that in this particular instance it does. It really helped that the main character wasn't insanely attractive. Right now this is my second favorite movie of the year.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I saw this last night and i loved the hell out of it, flaws and all. What Henry Gale said about subversion of expectations is incredibly spot on. It seems like a straight romantic comedy w/ a sci-fi conceit thrown in for the sake of gimmick and then uses that gimmick to turn the story into a rather touching tale that, in the end, emphasizes living life one day at a time and enjoying the now while you can.

I choked up multiple times and the story hit me square in the heart. I also love the use of music in this one. Great stuff.

[wigwam]

:|

[Irish]

Pretty sure that dude was in an episode of Black Mirror & it freaks me out thinking about him in the context of a rom com.

[transmogrifier]

38/100


Richard Curtis missed his calling as a Hallmark card writer; he certainly didn't miss his calling as a sci-fi writer, such is the shambolic, illogical nature of the time travel conceit here, which doesn't make a lick of sense at any stage. It has a nice moral, but no moral depth. It's all glib self-help nonsense.


Rachel McAdams is wasted.

[Philip J. Fry]

The movie was pretty okay. Gleeson is definitely the best part and the sex gag worked like a charm. I laughed out loud.