"We Live in Time" Review

A fresh take on a well-worn genre

SPOILER FREE

The premise of a weepy romantic drama in which one of the characters receives a likely fatal cancer diagnosis is nothing new. From The Notebook to The Fault in Our Stars, the weepy romance was a staple of 2000s and 2010s films. The plethora of examples made the genre feel tired by 2020, but We Live in Time brings it back through reinvention.

The film centers on the relationship of Almut — Florence Pugh — and Tobias — Andrew Garfield from meeting through the early stages of their relationship, two cancer diagnoses, the birth of their child, and their respective careers. However, the story is told in a non-linear series of almost vignette-like scenes. This structure lets us see the nuances of their relationship unfold without a “will they or won’t they tension.” From the beginning, we know that they end up together and have a child, but the road to get there and how they each change becomes more striking. The tension in the story comes from Almut’s and Tobias’ gravitational pull towards each other and their infinitely deep intimacy.

Pugh and Garfield both do intense heavy lifting in the film. Both of their characters are very flawed people who make selfish decisions, feel insecure, and make mistakes. At times it is hard to watch as they struggle through very human circumstances. If the performances were even 10% worse, the movie may not work, but their chemistry and attention to detail pull it together. They take it from cringy to heart-wrenchingly human.

The film’s structure also does quite a bit of heavy lifting. It switches back and forth among three different periods in the characters’ lives. However, these time jumps are not noted by traditional markers such as title cards or lighting. Instead, the audience learns where we are in time through subtle changes such as hair styles, home decor, and the actors’ performances.

While these choices make it harder to determine where we are in time, they also allow the audience to learn about the characters more naturally. Instead of seeing a title card and thinking, “Oh this is backstory now,” we subconsciously take in the little details. It feels like we are in the minds of the characters as they reflect on their lives, rather than being read a story by a spectator.

In a podcast interview on The Ringer ‘s “The Big Picture,” the film’s director John Crowley remarked that the film is about the things in life that are not remarkable but feel remarkable when they happen to you. People fall in love, have children, and get medical diagnoses every day, but when these things happen to us they feel like the most essential thing in human history. Tobias and Almut are very ordinary people experiencing typical aspects of life, but when we watch them reflect and change over time, it feels like the most crucial story every to happen.

The film’s incredibly human core is why it works so well. At times it was hard to watch because of how human it felt. Just like in all of our lives, there is humor, awkwardness, love, passion, apathy, and despair. If any number of things were slightly different, it would likely fail to grasp so much attention. However, the movie’s understanding of the everyday human experience elevates it beyond its genre.

I recommend We Live in Time to anyone who enjoys feeling emotions deeply and loves humanity. It will get under your skin and come back to you with the reminder that no emotion you feel has not been felt before, but that does not make those emotions any less spectacular.