Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh have electric chemistry in We Live in Time, an unconventional chronicle of a relationship from start to finish.
Director: John Crowley
Genre: Drama, Romance
Run Time: 107′
TIFF Screening: September 7, 2024
U.S. Release Date: October 11, 2024 (limited)
U.K. Release Date: January 1, 2025
When we look back on our lives, friendships and relationships, we rarely start from the start. Time may be a relentless linear beast, but memory is not, which is why the non-chronological approach of John Crowley’s We Live in Time works so well as a record of love between two humans. In this often jaunty, occasionally devastating comedy drama, moments are stitched together seemingly instinctively, forming a rich narrative tapestry that charts the course of a whole relationship.
When Michelin-starred chef Almut (Florence Pugh, of Midsommar) is told that her ovarian cancer has reared its ugly head again, she decides enough is enough. Now isn’t the time to suffer through months of painful chemotherapy and surgery, she wants to make the most of what she has while she still has it. Her partner Tobias (Andrew Garfield, of The Social Network) finds it a tough pill to swallow, and in the ensuing scenes we see just why that is as their relationship plays out on screen.
Among their first meeting in a car accident and the unconventional birth of their child, all manner of incidents small and large are scattered across the film, chosen more often for their capacity to shed new light on the characters than for their function within the plot. This disjointed approach smartly avoids cynical emotional manipulation; after half an hour we already know how most of these threads tie up, so when Crowley packs an emotional punch regardless, it’s all the more impressive.
Garfield and Pugh are outstanding as the central couple. The latter’s struggle to gel with Harry Styles in 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling feels like a distant memory as she banters, clashes and makes love with a co-lead worthy of her abilities. The former Spider-Man and Dune: Part Two stars show they can still portray ordinary, real (albeit rather posh) human beings, their characters’ shared mannerisms refreshingly authentic and often terrifically funny. With the film covering several years, the leads are completely believable as both metropolitan singletons and the countryside-dwelling parents of young Ella (the enchanting Grace Delaney).
Evidently, Pugh is given most of the heavy stuff and she delivers with aplomb; in a lonely toilet cubicle scene showing Almut in the throes of her illness, she is exceptional. Though even in the darker moments there is light to be found, normally from the supporting cast, including newcomer Lee Braithwaite as Almut’s commis chef and the duo of Nikhil Parmar and British TV favourite Kerry Godliman, who help bring baby Ella into the world in a petrol station toilet.
Taking place in both bustling London and England’s green and pleasant land, depending on where we are in the timeline, the film depicts the couple’s surroundings gorgeously. With everyone and everywhere looking as chic as they do (thanks to costume and production designers Liza Bracey and Alice Normington respectively), this will surely be a winner with native Brits and international anglophiles alike. Even Almut’s culinary creations, a modern twist on British and Bavarian cuisine, look irresistible in shots that could rival The Bear.
We Live in Time might just be a little too poppy to receive the major awards attention that Crowley’s 2015 gem Brooklyn enjoyed; on the Anglo-Irish comedy drama scale it leans a little closer to Richard Curtis than Stephen Frears. But it should do very well with audiences, offering a 2024 update on the ‘00s British romcom and featuring a central duo with charm in abundance.
We Live in Time was screened at TIFF on September 7, 2024 and will be released in select US theaters by A24 on October 11, 2024. In the UK, the film will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 17, 2024 and then be out in cinemas on January 1, 2025.
