We Live in Time: A Review

 

WE LIVE IN TIME

You have two of my favorite actors along with the director of one of my favorite movies, so one would think I would adore We Live in Time. I did like it but could not shake the idea that it was a touch manipulative in its presentation. 

Told in a nonlinear manner, We Live in Time tells the love story of Tobias Durant (Andrew Garfield) and Almut Bruhl (Florence Pugh). Putting it in a more linear manner, Almut and Tobias meet cute when she runs him down as he is crossing a highway while he is in his bathrobe. He is in his bathrobe because he impulsively went to a store to buy a pen to sign his divorce papers and was distracted, coming across the highway too fast for Almut to stop. 

Almut feels horrendous about the accident. As a chef in an up-and-coming restaurant, she offers him and his wife a dinner on the house as compensation. Tobias sheepishly admits on arrival that he is now divorced, and they begin a romantic relationship of their own. Tobias' first marriage failed, in part, because of his desire for a family. Almut herself is not thrilled with the idea of motherhood, but after some stumbles in their relationship and tumbles in bed, they continue their romance until she does end up pregnant. She ends up giving birth in a convenience store on New Year's Eve after they get stuck in traffic.

Things seem to be going well with them and their daughter Ella (Grace Delaney) until Almut is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She undergoes treatment and it looks like it went well. Unfortunately, the cancer returns. Almut is determined to keep going, though it means pushing herself secretly to compete in the Bocuse d'Or, a major and prestigious culinary competition. She hides this from Tobias because she knows that he will want her to focus on her treatment and Ella. Almut, however, wants to leave a legacy for Ella in case Almut does die. Will Almut be able to push on to victory both at the Bocuse d'Or and her cancer treatment?

We Live in Time certainly moved the audience that I attended the film with. I heard a lot of soft sobs as the story progressed. I am sure that those sobs were not over the sight of the physical beauty of both Pugh and Garfield, the former doing more nudity than the latter. Nick Payne's screenplay is somewhat relatable in its story of young love potentially cut down. The scene where Tobias confronts Almut about forgetting to pick up Ella, a result of her intense focus on rehearsals mixed with physical pain of her cancer, is effective. 

I do, however, wonder if We Live in Time would have worked better or at all if it had kept a linear structure. I think, ultimately, that it probably would not, though after a while the various pieces did not fit as well as they could have. When Almut is about to give birth, a sequence that brought about appropriate laughter, Tobias refers to her as his "partner". If I understand things correctly, they did eventually marry. However, the flashforward/flashback nature of We Live in Time muddled that plot point. 

I also go back to the use of "somewhat relatable" in that someone working in this very niche industry, complete with a major competition that I figure almost no one outside culinary circles has ever heard of, does keep Almut and Tobias a bit at a distance. I understand that a minor executive at a food company and a chef are not completely foreign occupations. I do, however, think that making the Bocuse d'Or a big part of things does come across as slightly elitist. I wonder if Payne might have made the characters less upper-class. I do not think we need to go to kitchen-sink drama levels, but I did not connect with Tobias and Almut (whom I thought was named Alma) as much as I could have.  

Payne's script also has other parts that perhaps we could have done without. When Tobias and Almut were attempting to explain Almut's cancer, he put in a bit where a clown was attempting to entertain Ella as her parents were trying to tell her about Almut's health. Eventually they snap at the clown, but while many laughed, I thought it was unnecessary.

Director John Crowley got good performances out of his cast. I thought both Garfield and Pugh did well as Tobias and Almut. I do think that Garfield's Tobias is the ultimate beta male, forever crying, crying, crying. Frankly, he struck me as a bit of a wimp. While Garfield did well in the role, playing it as I figure it was written, I still could not shake the idea that Tobias would have in reality have collapsed long ago. 

Much better was Pugh insofar as she had a character who was more complex. Almut could be standoffish, but she could also be vulnerable and driven, depending on the time we found her in. 

As I look back on We Live in Time, I found that I was not as impressed with it as others, critics and non, were. However, part of my job is to see how audiences reacted to it, which I use as part of my overall evaluation. I have always believed in judging a film, in part, on what it is attempting to accomplish. As such, We Live in Time works better than I thought it did. While I was less than impressed by the whole thing, particularly the nonlinear narrative, it was not a bad movie. If you want a good cry, We Live in Time certainly will do that for most, though you probably won't cry as much as Andrew Garfield did.

DECISION: B-