October 21, 2024 · Watch the official trailer
Sometimes the best movies are the simplest.
Even their complexity, there’s a natural quality to a film that feels almost effortless but has an exacting fluidity that subverts audience expectations with its ease.
Director John Crowley – best known for his Oscar nominated period romantic drama “Brooklyn” – returns with a much more contemporary yet equally compelling, satisfying piece of cinema with “We Live In Time,” a film that does not hesitate to make a mess of a relationship but at the same time deliver one that is raw, authentic, and natural.
“We Live In Time” follows Andrew Garfield as Tobias, a man on the precipice of divorce when new love literally strikes him head-on as Florence Pugh’s Almut hits him with her car in the world’s most surreal meet-cute to introduce a decade-spanning love story meandering back and forth chronologically to give viewers perspective into these two unique individuals.
Crowley takes great care to ensure that neither Tobias nor Almut come off as villain or hero of their own story, but equal protagonists going through trials and tribulations as a couple fervently in love no matter the cost.
The best possible version of writer Nick Payne’s screenplay, “We Live In Time” is a soft yet warm narrative that plays up more important moments in the couple’s relationship and allows them to fluctuate and linger while at the same time keeping a steady pace to prevent audiences from languishing in melodrama.
There’s no consistent structure to the rollercoaster narrative that weaves Tobias and Almut’s relationship from point A to point B and Crowley rarely signposts where audiences are in the history of their love beyond obvious physical clues.
What makes the film as successful as it is are the two lead performances that create the backbone of the narrative and give viewers something to constantly root for and connect with in an otherwise jumpy storyline.
Garfield’s Tobias comes off as a warm hug of a man whose neuroses give off a genuine heart that feels almost people pleasing yet restrained just enough to maintain a beautifully kind character. Strangely enough, it’s almost as if audiences are watching a man with the soul of Mr. Rogers fall in love with the challenges and complexities of almost overwhelming emotional turmoil.
That same genuine energy radiates from Pugh’s work as Almut and her ability to counter-balance what Garfield brings to moments in a standoffish, somewhat antagonistic way while maintaining the authenticity of the love the two characters share highlights the notion of opposites attracting and Almut being the perfect yin to Tobias’ yang.
The only narrative flaw within “We Live In Time” is the deeper personal storylines given to Almut that makes Pugh the more layered, textured performance in the film and pulls away from the 50-50 balance Crowley seeks to maintain throughout the course of 100 minutes, with the concept of how much time there is for love taking a backseat in large segments for Almut’s personal ambitions outside the relationship becoming nearly a roadblock to the overall narrative.
Visually, “We Live In Time” has a vibrant quality that accentuates the bright, free-spirited nature of Almut’s ambitions with a softer hue to mirror the lighter warm of Tobias. Crowley and cinematographer Stuart Bentley do a great job of making the film an engaging experience to follow without getting too much in the way of the lead performances.
Romance as a genre has probably been underserved in the last several decades even despite the proliferation of love stories topping the charts in bookstores. For audiences who love love or are fans of either lead actor, “We Live In Time” is a very human, very emotional film that needs a bigger audience than it will probably receive theatrically.
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