About Time. Written and directed by Richard Curtis. Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy.
Rating: 8 (out of 10)
Contributing Writer
Giant, theatre-sized chocolate? Check. Girlfriends in tow? Check. Hankies? Check. You'll need all three for About Time from Richard Curtis, the maestro of witty and touching romantic comedies (Notting Hill, Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral).
The film stars Domhnall Gleeson as Tim, a man who has enjoyed an idyllic childhood on the coast of England complete with loving parents, a free-spirited sister and a dotty uncle, and tea on the beach every day. It's the family that we all want to join.
On his 21st birthday Tim is told by his dad (Billy Nighy) that the men in their family have an unusual gift: they can travel through time. "You can't kill Hitler or shag Helen of Troy," explains dad, but you can make little adjustments to your own fate.
Tim puts his new skills to the test to acquire a girlfriend. After discovering that "all the time travel in the world can't make someone love you," he meets the girl of his dreams in Mary (Rachel McAdams) only to lose her again when he messes about too much with the time continuum. Thus Tim must woo her several times until he gets it right.
Putting aside the unfair advantage time travel gives the men in Tim's family over the women, it's a handy skill to have, being able to revise awkward conversations or cringingly bad make-out sessions. And there's the temptation to edit each part of the relationship, from sexual performance to proposals.
There are also difficult choices to be made when altering one person's fate affects the course of another's. When crises come - and they invariably do - Tim is desperate to fix everything and everyone, an impossible quandary. But ultimately Tim learns that time travel becomes unnecessary when life is pretty perfect.
The film is as much about siblings and father and son as it is about romantic love. And these father-son moments turn the film into a tear-jerker, a sobfest, actually. (Who knew a game of table tennis could be so fraught with emotion?) Tim is an unlikely romantic hero, but he grows on us. McAdams brings her trademark girl-next-door charm. We root for them throughout, even if Tim's methods are a little manipulative. But the film really succeeds because every character is fully fleshed-out, and has our undivided attention and sympathy, from the central couple to charming, hilarious supporting characters like Tim's temperamental landlord Harry (Tom Hollander) or Tim's sister (Lydia Wilson) who seems doomed to bad choices.
Aiding all is a fitting soundtrack featuring Nick Cave, Groove Amanda, Ben Folds and the UK's Ellie Goulding with "How Long Will I Love You." Crooner Jimmy Fontana's "Il Mondo" comes during a pivotal scene.
Curtis has done it again: About Time is the most awkward and most satisfying love story in years, with poignant lessons about editing one's life, seeing the good in every day and living in the moment.
