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We Live in Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield
Trailer: A24

We Live in Time
Directed by John Crowley
Rated R
Experienced 18 October 2024
#WeLiveInTime

We Live in Time is an uncommonly effective romantic drama featuring an Oscar-worthy performance from Florence Pugh.

Douglas Fir Parfaits

"Meet cute" doesn’t get much cuter than a woman driving a MINI Cooper running over a man crossing the street while wearing a hotel bathrobe, en route back to his room after foraging for snacks and a ballpoint pen. The two are formally introduced at the hospital, where she breaks the hard news to him: his chocolate orange was dead on the scene.

Wait. Maybe that needs a little more context.

The guy is Tobias Durand (Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man: No Way Home), who works in the IT department of a major British food company. The gal is Almut Bruhl (Florence Pugh, Oppenheimer), an ambitious chef on the verge of opening her own restaurant in southern London.

What are the odds?

Compounding things, Tobias was out to buy that ballpoint pen to sign divorce papers. Never mind the logic of simply going down to the hotel lobby and asking for a pen. After all, he also had cravings for a chocolate orange.

Forgive those narrative sins, those sleights of hand and mind, because this romantic drama with a good sense of humor about itself ultimately earns the jerked tears and tugged hearts.

Time Travel

Fitting for a movie titled We Live in Time, the narrative structure is non-linear, moving back and forth to various points in Tobias and Almut’s relationship. The usual romance story beats are there. The first fight (a rather mild one, in this case). Wedding talk. A baby. Various character revelations. And a major, life-changing challenge.

Non-linear structures are a great way to reveal key pieces of information in ways and at times that help a movie build momentum or build on emotions. Instead of simply following the standard chronological order of birth, life and death, an emphasis can be placed on pivotal moments for an emotional flow (like an album’s track listing). Great recent examples include The Glorias, Wrath of Man and Oppenheimer. Here, the structure works well and makes for a more interesting experience than following the traditional cradle-to-grave path of a meets-cute romance tinged with heartache.

That title and the non-linear structure also serve a key theme in the movie, as Almut, facing the return of ovarian cancer that requires an aggressive course of treatments, offers a choice to Tobias: they either live an eventful, active life for six months, or take the safer, more passive route of 12 crappy months. Her reasoning is sound: there are no guarantees in life. She challenges the value and effectiveness of the treatment itself and questions if it might turn out to be a waste of time.

That’s a strong narrative foundation, but there’s still a sense of a cheat going on with some of the story beats. There’s a baking competition Almut needs to prepare for that turns out to be on the same weekend she’s been planning to marry Tobias. There’s also an odd thread about Almut having been in an ice-skating competition in Salt Lake City. She’s keeping secrets from Tobias and it doesn’t sit right. For a portion of the movie, that non-linear strategy seems to backfire as Almut’s logic seems to defy narrative logic.

But, thankfully, it ties together quite strongly. In a way, it reflects a confession from Tobias when he acknowledges he was looking too far ahead instead of looking at what’s right in front of him. Don’t look too far ahead while watching We Live in Time. Everything needed is right in front of you.

Parallel Parking

Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne (who seems infatuated with the past and time with scripts for The Sense of an Ending and The Last Letter from Your Lover) manage to maintain an agreeable sense of humor amid all the drama. That includes a disturbing yet humorous birthing scene in the restroom of a gas station. It seems to be the movie’s single longest sequence and it’s a little laborious (oh my, no pun intended) as Almut and Tobias contend with a traffic jam that leads them to walk over to the nearby petro station, contend with a broken lock on the restroom door and encounter a couple stoic station attendants who help usher in a new life.

As We Live in Time moves through time, those weird dramatic beats – the ice skating; the ballpoint pen; the scheduling conflict between the bake-off and the wedding; the birth – straighten out. There’s a powerful thought driving Almut’s actions that leads to an equally powerful message, particularly as those anticipated six months of joyful activity turn into six months of stress. As she drains her body by working extra – and intense – hours for that baking competition, Almut also neglects her very own cancer treatment and recovery, even her own family. But, during a tense argument with Tobias, her motivations are finally revealed. She’s afraid of being forgotten and she wants to leave something behind for her daughter. She doesn’t want her to think she gave up, but instead she wants her daughter to remember her as a fighter.

Best Left Unsaid

We Live in Time treads a lot of familiar territory in the world of romantic dramas, but it still feels fresh thanks to the steady direction of John Crowley (who won big with Brooklyn and lost big with the adaptation of The Goldfinch) and a strong chemistry between Pugh and Garfield.

Sure, there’s a scene involving cracked eggs and sex that’s not quite on par with 9½ Weeks and the infamous Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke refrigerator scene. But those aren’t the right breadcrumbs to follow.

Garfield returns to the screen after the recent real-life loss of his mother and he comes across here, as Tobias, as a grounded man in search of healing following his divorce and in the face of Almut’s cancer.

But it’s Pugh who steals the show in virtually every frame. Hers is a daring performance; it’s hard to think of anybody else who outshines or even comes close to matching how far Pugh commits to making Almut a relatable, sympathetic character.

All those pieces of life being referenced in various chapters of this couple’s journey come together in an unexpectedly quiet, yet honest ending. A lot is left unsaid and is instead conveyed visually.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.