A few years ago, Hollywood went through a rash of earnest, heartfelt tragedies that attempted to make you feel good about watching someone die. There were far too many of them (The Fault In Our Stars, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl as examples), and fortunately, the phase died out when audiences grew sick of the familiar formula. Well, after a bit of a break, that subgenre returns with a touch more maturity in We Live in Time, a tug-at-the-heartstrings weeper with two excellent performances by Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. This kind of movie can’t exist without some amazing chemistry, and in this case, the central couple definitely has it.
Directed by John Crowley, We Live in Time doesn’t attempt to break the mold of the film we expect it to be. It is a sweeping, loud and proud romantic drama in the classic sense. We know there will be a somewhat ridiculous meet cute, and in this case, it’s when gorgeous Londoners Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh) literally crash into one another. Tobias, a straight-laced, anxious exec at breakfast cereal brand Weetavix, is run over by Almut, a free-spirited professional chef and restaurant owner. The first thing he sees upon waking up is her face, which, let’s be honest, isn’t such a bad thing.
Bouncing around in time, we are taken through the highs and lows of Tobias and Almut’s relationship. Nick Payne’s screenplay holds nothing back. Similar to Crowley, he takes big emotional swings that can hit you hard right in the feels, or turn off more cynical viewers. We see their torrid first sexual encounter, the blissful honeymoon period, their break-up over the desire for children, his admission of love for her, and his awkward attempt at reconciliation. These scenes are cozy and enjoyable, aided by Garfield who always comes across as the most likable and approachable guy on the planet.
Pugh shines brightest when things start to get a bit murky, though. Almut, who never wanted children until she realized she wanted them with Tobias, is hurt the most by their struggles to conceive and her illness. The use of flashbacks and time-jumps are clever, also. Rather than following the path of their relationship linearly, the happiest and darkest moments are spread out in ways that inform the growth of both people.
Almut’s cancer diagnosis isn’t just a way of getting us to cry buckets of tears. Payne’s screenplay does more than just settle into the cold reality of her disease, which is what many films do. Instead, we see how it fuels Almut to leave her mark as a professional, to be remembered as more than just a wife and mother. Her decision causes a rift with Tobias, who in turn is nervous about losing the person he loves, so soon after his earlier divorce caught him off-guard.
While We Live in Time gets pretty grim, it’s balanced by Tobias and Almut just being two people who are crazy in love with each other. The film finds easy humor and levity in this mismatched pair. He’s a dork, she’s a spitfire; their conversations are light, funny, and unique to them. On the one hand, we have a pregnant Almut racing to a nearby convenience store while Tobias sits in traffic; on the other we have Almut giving birth in a gas station bathroom. It’s played as cutesy as it sounds and just as much fun to watch.
The high watermark of Crowley’s career was the Oscar-nominated drama Brooklyn in 2015, which also happens to be the highlight for star Saoirse Ronan. While his movies tend to be too precious, Crowley knows how to give his actors the required space to fully embody their characters. While Garfield is terrific here, he takes a backseat to Pugh who is the real driver of the story. Almut is a force of nature, and it sends a powerful message to see this strong, professional, and master of her craft striving to prove her exceptionalism in the face of a terminal illness. It’s also devastating when she fails to have the strength to live up to her ideals. Pugh is just extraordinary, and I still don’t think we’ve seen the best from her yet.
A24 clearly has high hopes for We Live in Time as an Oscar season contender, and perhaps it will be for one or both actors. It still tracks as a conventional, somewhat predictable tearjerker and that will probably hurt it in the long run. Also, the jumbled narrative, while handled very well, dulls the emotional impact of the final scenes as they play to our sympathies. We Live in Time is a lovely, bittersweet film with Pugh and Garfield as intensely charming as they’ve ever been.
We Live in Time opens in select theaters on October 11th, nationwide October 18th.
