The UK knows how to film a love story.
With its delicate and polite relationship narratives, extending its deep filmography from the recent About Time all the way to such classics as Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love, Actually, the population who is infamously known as the worst dancers in the world, truly capture the essence of love stories in a romance film. Luckily for us, We Live In Time is a very beautiful and worthy entry into this gorgeous canon.
Held strong by its two main leads, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, who deliver such wondrous and heartfelt performances as Tobias and Almut, two unlikely lovers who meet in the most unconventional and unprecedented way, much like life itself, gives the film its true heart and soul. Pugh and Garfield both dive deep into the very real and butterfly like emotions of love at first sight and truly encapsulate the joys and tragedies of new relationships and figuring out how compatibility in a world of so many people truly feels special and magical and uniquely honest.
Helmed by filmmaker John Crowley, the filmmaker with a keen eye at making the mundane look truly cinematic, We Live In Time is a non-linear love story about two unlikely individuals falling in love in all the best but most difficult ways possible. With the real life issues and thematic elements like the expectations of children, the balancing of work and family as well as the nuanced truths of compatibility, We Live In Time is a docile take on the remedies of tragedy and the wonders of chance.
Less preoccupied with the idea of giving what the audience wants, the film is a very simple story of true love in the face of adversity. Yet, as cinematically enrapturing the film in front of us unfolds, the true beauty of the film remains that the real villain in Tobias and Almut’s love story, is the same villain in all of our lives, and that is life itself and how its gracefully yet harshly handled.
Handicapped by the recent news of cancer, Almut and Tobias navigate the tricky waters of self-determination yet tickle with the idea of happiness and remaining true to the fact that life lived is much better than a life filled with suffering and obligation to a disease that takes the best last moments of peoples lives, in exchange for a slim chance at rehabilitation.
What truly allows We Live In Time to stand uniquely outside the rest, is its true dedication to the imperfections of life and love. While some of life’s most incredible moments seem to unfold perfectly in film, We Live In Time realizes the fact in the matter that sometimes, perfect does not exist in real life. A moment in the film I truly loved, was the scene where Tobias proposes to Almut; a scene where Almut follows a trail of candles to a dark and candle-lit room where Tobias is anxious to propose. In that moment, where audiences have come to expect grandiose speeches and incredibly suitable monologues, Garfield’s Tobias gets so chocked up, screenwriter Nick Payne instead opts for Pugh’s character to read Tobias’ anxious proposal through a note; one that isn’t read back to the audience, but instead, internalized by Pugh character, and therefore, left to the imagination of its audience. A feeling audiences members everywhere can relate to on many levels because we all know, sometimes, nerves tend to get the best of us, and this scene is no different than the billions of love stories everywhere in the world.
While We Live In Time showcases the beautiful moments of these two people’s lives, the true beauty of the film lives within the times we cherish that are so mundane yet so poignant and important to each and every one of us; scenes that showcases comedy and tragedy, happiness and sadness, as well as fantasy and reality.
We Live In Time is a moment in life that we, the audience, cherish, holds dear, and enraptures us in all its beauty and honesty.
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