Time is fleeting; and so is memory where this romantic drama is concerned. It simply did not stick with me. In fact, I struggled to remember the title within minutes of leaving the theater. And that made me sad, because I really wanted to embrace this movie! I adore Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield and had incredibly high hopes based on the sappy trailer (I’m a sap). I was sure I’d leave the theater a bawling mess (in a Terms of Endearment sort of way). Yet my fistful of tissues lived to see another day.
I don’t blame Pugh (Oppenheimer, Little Women) and Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man, Tick Tick…Boom!). They deliver excellent performances as Almut and Tobias, a young couple whose unconventional love story takes a tragic turn when she is diagnosed with cancer. The film traces their lives together over the course of a decade— from first encounter to courtship to starting a family. But it does so in a non-linear way that took me out of key moments before I could become fully invested in the characters and their relationship. I enjoyed individual scenes— there is sweetness and humor to be found amid the sadness, and lessons to be learned about making the most of the time we have, and how we define our legacy. It’s just not as good as the sum of its parts.
We Live in Time opened in theaters October 18th. No harm waiting for the streaming option.