Director: Richard Curtis.
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson, Tom Hollander, Joshua McGuire, Lindsay Duncan, Margot Robbie, Vanessa Kirby, Richard Cordery, Harry Hadden-Paton, Tom Hughes.
Running Time: 123 minutes.
Certificate: 12A.
Synopsis: When Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers he can travel back in time, he decides to concentrate on getting a girlfriend, just like any other 21 year-old. After meeting the beautiful Mary (Rachel McAdams), Tim faces difficult decisions over whether to make her fall in love with him again to save those around him from their personal problems.
Chances are that if you were to try and work out the paradoxes of time travel in ABOUT TIME by arranging a pile of straws into a pattern on a diner table, it would mess with your head and everyone would leave very confused. The film’s central concept is that the men in a certain family can travel to specific points in their own history, and do things differently if they wish. It’s an exciting idea to throw into the classic rom-com formula, but, like STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, if you think too much about the plot details, it all begins to unravel like a poorly knitted jumper.
There are two problems with Richard Curtis’ venture into the complex world of time travel. Firstly, he doesn’t explore it enough in order to justify it as the central plot point. It serves as a device to make a sweet family drama, which isn’t in itself a bad thing, but the script hints at ethical dilemmas which could have made it far more fascinating and complex. Instead plumping for undemanding niceness, difficult moral issues are resolved or ignored in a matter of minutes; they are a side salad when they should be the meat of film.
The second issue is that when Curtis does explore these potentially clever ideas, he fumbles the time travel logic and regularly ignores the rules he himself wrote. LOOPER made a point of not delving too much into the mechanics of temporal tinkering, but it still largely made sense within its own world. Curtis struggles to explain some really glaring plot holes, and a lot of the time he just doesn’t bother.
In spite of this stymied potential and narrative inconsistency, ABOUT TIME still manages to be a good deal more interesting and enjoyable than many other rom-coms that get released. The appeal is thanks largely to an excellent cast. Bill Nighy is as dependably roguish as ever and Rachel McAdams – who has criminally little to work with – still manages to add spark to a well-worn character type. The star of the show is Domhnall Gleeson (previously best known as Levin in ANNA KARENINA), who is playing the part Hugh Grant would have been auto-cast for twenty years ago. His awkward smiles, terrible way with conversation and irrepressible warmth make him a hugely enjoyable, if unconventional leading man.
ABOUT TIME’s greatest strength is how it uses its rom-com conventions in the first two acts and allows space in the final third for exploring the family as a wider unit. It’s not subtle in the slightest thanks to a painfully obvious voiceover, but the shift in focus is a welcome and enjoyable one. There’s also a refreshingly different final act that shifts the focus from the married pair to the wider family. There’s no rush to the airport, no declarations of love in Portuguese or in the rain and, instead of forcing conflict between Tim and Mary, the emotional impact comes from Tim’s sister (Lydia Wilson), father and, surprisingly, his Uncle (Richard Cordery).
A lot of people will hate a lot of things in ABOUT TIME. The plot doesn’t stand up to strong scrutiny; it’s emotionally manipulative and the message is delivered very bluntly. Yet, as a rom-com it gets by on the charm of the characters and the attempt to do something a little bit different with the familiar structure. You won’t want to travel back in time to erase it from your memory, but you are also unlikely to travel back in time just to watch it again.
ABOUT TIME is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 4th September.
