My instant reaction to the poster for We Live in Time was “A24 did a weepie?” The title and image alone are enough to convey that the movie is a romantic tearjerker, part of a lineage that stretches from Now, Voyager to Love Story and beyond. Audiences used to line up to cry for an ill-fated couple, but today most such films are relegated to streaming.
If We Live in Time is on the big screen, that’s due to the cachet of the stars, the director — John Crowley, who made the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn — and the distributor, which is known for its “elevated horror” and edgy art house fare. The big question: Can A24 make the weepie relevant to a new generation?
The deal
I didn’t just spoil the movie by calling it a weepie, because Crowley and writer Nick Payne tell the story out of order. In the first scene, corporate IT guy Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and Bavarian-fusion chef Almut (Florence Pugh) are living bucolically in the countryside, where she whips him up breakfast from fresh-laid eggs. In the second scene, they’re in a doctor’s office, learning that Almut’s cancer has returned and needs aggressive treatment.
From there, the film jumps back years to show us the beginning of the relationship. The couple’s first “meet” is indeed cute, or at least memorable: Almut nearly runs over Tobias while he’s on a madcap quest for a pen to sign his divorce papers. After a meal at her newly opened restaurant, they succumb to mutual passion.
As years pass, youthful infatuation deepens into commitment, and the pair confront life-altering decisions with their young daughter (Grace Delaney). The whole story prepares them to face the grave questions presented in the second scene: How much time does an older Almut have left? And how can she and her family spend it best?
Will you like it?
Weepies tend to take place in a rarefied version of reality where everyone is beautiful, has a glamorous job (or a photogenic working-class one), and lives in a home that belongs in a magazine spread. A cushy setting makes it easier to swallow the medicine of the inevitable ending.
We Live in Time follows that pattern to an extent. No one ever worries about money in this movie, both parents and their kid couldn’t be cuter, and even in her younger and scrappier days, Almut always has a gorgeous kitchen.
But the movie also has a fair bit of grit and humor. More than a gimmick, the nonlinear storytelling emphasizes the power of chance and chaos in the couple’s lives. Tobias is a meticulous planner whose plans keep going awry, sometimes spectacularly so. Mercifully, however, the film’s whimsy remains at bearable levels; no one speechifies about the inexorability of time or uses quantum physics as a metaphor for human life.
Payne and Crowley update the weepie in an even more radical way by giving Almut ambitions that go beyond her idyllic family life — along with a competitive streak. When the couple meet, she doesn’t want children. Even after changing her mind, she doesn’t slow down, participating in the international Bocuse d’Or cooking competition even as she undergoes chemo.
The couple have fleshed-out backstories and palpable chemistry, especially when they bond over comfort food. Pugh is noticeably young for the role — we watch Almut age from 34 to perhaps around 40 — but she gives the character a fierce energy that underscores the agency the story grants her. Almut is no passive dying swan, and regardless of whether we agree with her choices, they’re clearly hers. Garfield also delivers a nuanced and moving performance, drawing on the talent for pathos that he showed in films such as Never Let Me Go.
A bit too much screen time is wasted on jokes about Tobias’ employer, the cereal Weetabix, which lose something in their translation to American viewers. And some plot points are forced to the point of unbelievability, especially one involving Almut’s withholding of information from Tobias.
But if We Live in Time sometimes loses us, it wins us back with scenes that feel painfully real, such as one in which Almut’s doctor offers the couple candy to give them a little space to process bad news. Food isn’t just a trendy accessory here. It’s the stuff of life and normalcy, an attempted bulwark against the fate that awaits us all.
While We Live in Time doesn’t use its time-jumping format as innovatively or as heartbreakingly as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — a modern classic of the genre — it does make us believe in the strength of this millennial couple. We root for them, and yes, our tears might flow.
MARGOT HARRISON
If you like this, try…
Supernova (2021; Paramount+, rentable): Time is also running out for Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth in this drama about a couple who take a road trip in the wake of a disturbing diagnosis.
Blue Valentine (2010; PLEX, Roku Channel, Tubi, YouTube Primetime, rentable): Director Derek Cianfrance alternates between two timelines — courtship and breakup — to depict the passionate but troubled romance of a couple played by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.
Brooklyn (2015; Max, rentable): To raise your spirits after We Live in Time, try Crowley’s period piece about an Irish immigrant (Saoirse Ronan) in the 1950s, which has the retro charm and gentleness of a Hallmark movie without the saccharine.
Related Stories
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2024.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
