About Time

UK Release Date. 4 September 2013
Certification. 12A
Running Time. 2 hours 3 mins
Director. Richard Curtis
Cast. Lindsay Duncan, Domhnall Gleeson, Tom Hollander, Vanessa Kirby, Rachel McAdams, Joshua McGuire, Bill Nighy, Margot Robbie.
Rating. 62%

Review.

The day after another excruciating family New Year's Eve party Tim's father reveals the Lake family secret, namely that the men in the family have the ability to travel back in time. 

Writer and director, Richard Curtis affords little time to the philosophical, ethical and financial dilemmas concerned with time travel. Even less time is devoted to the mechanisms and rules of temporal manipulation. Instead, the film's storyline centres on Tim's search for romance, aided by his newfound ability to relive and refine his courtship attempt again and again. A ploy more in the character of Sliding Doors than Groundhog Day.

Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) serendipitously meets Mary (Rachel McAdams) in a Dans le Noir-style dark dining restaurant. The conversation in the stygian surroundings would suggest Mary is charming and articulate, if somewhat insecure and dowdy. But in truth, Rachel McAdams has never looked more attractive, sporting a chic librarian style and kooky Lauren Mayberry fringe. How could anyone not fall for her charms?

Domhnall Gleeson is a revelation as Tim. Comparisons with Hugh Grant are inevitable, especially with the sagacious explanatory narration employed in About Time. Tim's endearing, even if he is inadvertently meddling in the lives of others. I suspect this is mainly because Tim cannot alter the major stuff in life, such as births and deaths. But Curtis establishes these rules of time travel, only to frustratingly break them at will whenever the storyline requires.

About Time features a brilliantly curated, eclectic soundtrack featuring existing material from The Cure, Amy Winehouse and The Sugababes which establishes the mood of the specific scene. And whilst the contributions from Ben Folds, Ron Sexsmith and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are also presumably existing material, these songs could have been written specifically for this film, such is their relevance. Finally, a beautifully uplifting piano-led piece of music from Nick Laird-Cloves serves as the main incidental theme for About Time.

About Time is a delightfully simple story which offers much more than a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy. In a Capra-esque moment of profound clarity, Tim realises that the real trick to live a better life is to simply live in the moment, without recourse or regret. With this conclusion, comes the revelation that the most tender relationship is between Tim and his father (Bill Nighy). The glimpses of an idyllic life captured in the quiet moments shared by Gleeson and Nighy are heartbreaking, and the film beautifully handles the idea of letting go and moving on. The relationship between father and son is perhaps the true romance at the heart of About Time.

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