Abbie Klein
Many movie goers have been excited and intrigued for John Crowley’s new movie We Live In Time since photos of leads Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield were leaked in April of 2023. The impressive filmography of both actors including classics like The Amazing Spider-Man and Little Women had people greatly anticipating seeing how well the two would work on screen together. While I am a fan of both actors and I think their performances were exceptional, I feel like the movie fell flat and failed to portray the message they intended to.
The A24 romantic drama starring Pugh and Garfield that released on Oct. 18, was meant to be an emotional rollercoaster showing the relationship of Tobias Durrand (Garfield) and Almut Brühl (Pugh). The two met after Almut accidentally hit Tobias with her car, sparking the beginning of a deep and long relationship. Almut and Tobias quickly fall in love and take their relationship very seriously very early on.
After moving in together shortly after they meet, Almut discovers she has ovarian cancer and begins to go through chemotherapy. Once she goes into remission she and Tobais begin their journey to have a child. Due to Almut’s weakened reproductive system the couple turns to IVF to help them conceive. Through their IVF journey Almut and Tobias become pregnant with their daughter Ella, who is later born on the bathroom floor of a gas station on New Years Eve.
Around 3 years later Almut receives a second cancer diagnosis. This time she tells Tobias she wants to have a great 6 to 8 months instead of spending 12 months in pain and sickness. These months are spent alongside her family and preparing for a prestigious cooking competition, Bocuse d’Or, in which Almut represents the UK in.
The movie ends with Almut completing the Bocuse d’Or and going ice skating with Tobias and Ella. The scene fades out showing Almut waving to her family from across the rink. Then cutting to the final scene of the movie, it shows Tobias home alone with Ella teaching her to crack an egg the same way Almut had taught him.
Instead of chronologically showing this story, the movie showed their relationship by going back and forth between three different points in time. These points being when they first met, the birth of their daughter and Almut’s second cancer diagnosis. While this was tough to follow at first I quickly got used to it once I was able to identify which time the scene was in. This layout offered both disadvantages and advantages. The back and forth very much felt like watching a person’s life on a highlight reel. I imagine the director was trying to make it seem like how someone would view their life in their last moments, messy and all at the same time. While this helped add to the overall message of the movie it was difficult to connect with the characters emotionally.
For a movie that was meant to be an emotional take on life, love and loss I felt it difficult to greatly feel anything towards these characters and their story due to the way it was shown. The characters were very flat and didn’t have much depth. It was difficult to add detail and backstory to these characters while maintaining the highlight-reel effect.
As someone who is a fan of Pugh and Garfield and loves almost anything A24 releases, I was disappointed by We Live In Time. I felt like the story had the ability to be something extraordinary and memorable but I left the theater feeling indifferent. I don’t regret seeing it but it’s not a movie I feel I need to see again.