Producers: Adam Ackland, Leah Clarke and Guy Heeley Director: John Crowley Screenplay: Nick Payne Cast: Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield, Lee Braithwaite, Adam James, Grace Delaney, Aoife Hinds, Douglas Hodge, Amy Morgan, Marama Corlett, Nikhil Parmar, Niamh Cusack, Heather Craney, Lucy Briers, Robert Boulter and Kerry Godliman Distributor: A24
Grade: B
Chronological fracturing, moving back and forth in time, often works to the detriment of a film. In the case of John Crowley’s, however, it’s central to its success. Without the shifts, “We Live in Time” would likely come off as a fairly standard-issue tearjerker—basically a disease-of-the-week movie, if a finely crafted one. But by asking viewers to experience the central relationship with a visceral sense of its lurches and setbacks, it becomes something more wrenching. It doesn’t escape being a weepie, but the jolts, artfully arranged by screenwriter Nick Payne and realized by Crowley, the cast and editor Justine Wright, help to make it a genuinely moving one.
A synopsis necessarily puts the shards back into order, and results in spoilers one should be warned against (this constitutes the warning!). Almut (Florence Pugh), a chef, and Tobias (Andrew Garfield), a rep for a cereal company, meet cruel-cute. He’s at an out-of-town conference, where he tries to sign his divorce papers in his motel, but none of the pens work. So he runs off crazily to a nearby convenience store. On the way back, though, he crosses a highway and gets hit by a car driven by—you guessed it—Almut. They meet in the hospital where he’s taken for treatment.
Thus starts the relationship that leads to an engagement and wedding plans. But it also suffers setbacks, including a disagreement over whether they want children (he does, she’s ambivalent). But when she’s diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she chooses a partial rather than a full hysterectomy to leave open the option. And eventually they do have a lovely daughter, Ella (Grace Delaney).
That involves another darkly cute episode, since on the way to the hospital they’re delayed in terrible traffic, prompting Almut to make her way to a gas station where she’s trapped in the restroom. It’s only with the help of the clerks on duty that the baby is delivered. It’s a sequence that could be accused of sitcom overtones, but thanks to Crowley, cinematographer Stuart Bentley, Pugh and Garfield (as well as the two clerks) it’s skillfully pulled off.
But there’s also a devastating reversal —the recurrence of the cancer, with a poor prognosis. Tobias pushes on with the wedding preparations, but Almut, who’s already expressed indecision about going ahead with punishing treatment or enjoying whatever time they have left to the fullest, wants to go forward with plans to enter a cooking competition overseen by master chef Simon Maxson (Adam James); her young assistant chef Jade (Lee Braithwaite) is her partner. Setting aside the wedding, Tobias supports her decision and brings Ella to cheer Almut on.
She and Jade finish the grueling competition, but rather than wait for the winners to be announced, Almut leaves the hall to pluck Tobias and Leah from the audience and take them to an ice skating rink. She was a competitive skater in her youth, and now introduces her little daughter and gangly husband to the pastime. Later, Tobias is shown teaching Ella to crack eggs into a skillet in the way Almut had taught him to do.
Spoilers Over! One can only imagine how sappy the film would be if it were told in simple chronological sequence. By mixing the episodes up, often showing the results before we’ve seen what leads up to them, the film puts us in the position of the characters, uncertain of connections and consequences. It’s a device that might have undermined our ability to follow what happens, but is so carefully employed here that it increases the emotional stakes rather than dissipating them.
Of course, the success of the stunt (which, of course, is what it is) depends to a great extent on the two lead actors, and here Payne and Crowley are exceptionally fortunate. Pugh and Garfield give remarkable performances. She conveys Almut’s tenacity in the face of the obstacles arrayed against her but also a sense of vulnerability, while he represents the softer half of the equation, his mouth frequently quivering and his eyes welling with tears, but without succumbing to mawkishness. Yet both also seize the humor of the more lighthearted episodes, and the passion of the romantic ones. They keep the movie from sinking into purely maudlin territory, a danger difficult to avoid in material like this.
The reminder of the cast is fine, with Braithwaite especially strong as Almut’s loyal second-in-the-kitchen and Delaney nicely natural as little Ella. Douglas Hodge has a few good moments as Tobias’ caring father, but among the other players it’s the two harried gas station clerks you’ll probably remember for their congratulatory fist-bumps as Almut leaves in an ambulance, infant in her arms.
On the technical level all is well, with Alice Normington’s production design and Liza Bracey’s costumes unfussily right without overdoing the changes of periods and Bentley’s cinematography similarly straightforward; the importance of Wright’s editing has already been noted. Bryce Dessner’s score, however, doesn’t always avoid cliché.
The result is a tearjerker even viewers usually averse to the genre can appreciate for its good taste and exceptional craftsmanship.