We live in time

 We live in time is a modern rom-com between two people (Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh) with a few twists. It's fine, but it's not the most engaging film I've ever seen. 

The film is split across three timelines and we cut across them over the course of the film. In one section, the couple are pregnant and waiting to give birth, in another the couple have their young daughter and are dealing with Almut's recurring cancer, and in another Tobias is leaving his failed marriage and is meeting and romancing Almut. The technique works quite well, and keep the film engaging. 

The plot is OK I guess. There are some great bits of comedy with Tobias the Weetabix man (as he's known to Almut's friend), and the birth scene in a petrol station bathroom is very good. But the plot is a bit thin. It boils down to Almut not being sure if she wants children, having cancer, winning, having a child, having cancer again, taking part in a cooking competition, then death. The main theme is about the options available to women. The relationship hits a rocky patch when Tobias makes it clear he wants children and Almut doesn't (she later changes her mind when she has cancer) and why that should have such an effect on Almut's life. There's an echo years later when Almut has cancer again and secretly enters an elite cooking competition rather than focusing on recovering. 

I'm really sympathetic to Tobias on this one - if you've got life-threatening cancer, yes the obvious thing to do is to focus on health and recovery and not to take part in a mad competition. It's not terminal, it is treatable and that's the wiser choice. Almut's argument is that she wants their daughter to think of her mum as someone who achieved lots even while having cancer; the film destroys this by never showing us where Almut places. It ends with Tobias teaching their daughter how to crack eggs the way their mum does (on a flat surface) and in this action it really undermines the position of Almut. It shows us that what lives on after us is the effect we have on individuals and how they choose to remember us, not what we want them to remember or any trophies that we keep from them. It was quite a confused ending and one that I think could have used a bit more work. 

Brilliantly acted, funny in parts, but probably not something I'd turn to again. 

Film seen at Odeon Haymarket on January 16th