About Time – Film Review

When Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) is twenty-one, his father (Bill Nighy) tells him a secret: The men in their family can travel through time. Although he can’t change history, Tim resolves to improve his life by getting a girlfriend. He meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), falls in love and finally wins her heart via time-travel and a little cunning. However, as his unusual life progresses, Tim finds that his special ability can’t shield him and those he loves from the problems of ordinary life.

The concept of a time travel movie isn’t anything new. That’s nothing surprising, though. We’ve gotten so many of them that it even ended up spilling into the mainstream with movies such as Avengers: Endgame where time travel was actually integral to the plot.

But few movies understand time travel as well as Richard Curtis‘ About Time; an extremely uplifting, hilarious, emotionally powerful, and inspirational romantic comedy-drama coming-of-age story that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions throughout its two hour running time.

It’s also one of the rare time travel movies that explores the dangers of it as well as showing the positives that it could bring. In this film, our protagonist Tim Lake is a huge loner and he is certain that he is going to die alone. He’s extremely anti-social and whenever he gets into a conversation with a woman, it ends up turning into something outrageously awkward.

However, one day his father James pulls him aside and tells him that their family has a huge secret: they’re time travellers. Of course, Tim doesn’t believe this, but when James tells him to go into a closet and… ta-da! It works, much to Tim’s surprise obviously.

He then uses this ability to try to become better at conversing with girls and along the way, he improves the overall quality of his life. This is easily one of the most unique and innovative romance movies I’ve ever seen. Watching the relationship between Tim and Mary blossom is an incredibly special thing.

And it’s one of those relationships that feels so real even though Tim is a time traveller. You can tell that he really loves this woman and he’d do anything for her. The film never shies away from showing all of the ups and downs of a relationship, and it also shows us that everything in life happens for a reason.

Tim eventually must learn that time travelling to re-do past mistakes in life isn’t the best idea because he’s too stuck living in the past and not focused enough on making memories in the future. It also isn’t too preachy about this message. It’s never in our face, but merely, presented to us in a beautiful, honest way.

Domhnall Gleeson is absolutely wonderful in the role of Tim. He’s insanely endearing and such a likable protagonist. Rachel McAdams as Mary is equally fantastic. Together, the two have electric chemistry that feels genuine and honest, much like the rest of the movie as a whole.

This is one of those movies where if you don’t crack at least one smile, I’d be convinced that you don’t have a heart. It’s a movie that we don’t get to see get made anymore unfortunately, but thankfully, we don’t have to travel back in time to experience this piece of art.

About Time is an extremely uplifting, hilarious, emotionally powerful, and inspirational romantic comedy-drama coming-of-age story that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions.