Film review: We live in time

MOVIE REVIEW
WE LIVE IN TIME
Rated R
107 minutes
Published on October 18th

We live in time is a universal story about love, commitment, friendship, time and grief. In this film, small incidents that are not normally included in the narrative humanize the film. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2023. It stars Andrew Garfield as “Tobias” and Florence Pugh as “Almut,” who seem so natural together that you could easily believe that they have been together for years and have lived through this history of their relationship and friendship.

Garfield creates a fully fleshed out character that is funny, quirky and human. This film is very personal for Garfield. He was born in Los Angeles to a British mother and an American father, but when he was three the family moved to Surrey and he grew up there, where the majority of this film was filmed. His mother sensed that he was artistically inclined and encouraged him in his career. He says that although he left and came to the US to pursue a career as soon as he was old enough, “when I went back there (to Surrey), I thought, ‘Damn, I have to face my dad.’ admit that it’s actually okay down here.’” . It’s beautiful.'”

Garfield won a Tony for Best Actor in 2018 for his stage performance in Angels in America and has become one of the most sought-after actors in the world of cinema. His mother died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, so the experience of making this film about grief follows his true story. On The Stephen Colbert Show in 2021, he expressed his sadness over her death and the interview has since gone viral. Garfield feels that his love for her stays with him and that feeling his grief is “the only way I can feel close to her again.”

Pugh, an Oxford-born British actress, known for her roles in Midsummer (2019), Little women (2019) and Oppenheimer (2023) is also amazing and completely believable in this film. She captures her character’s desperate need to make her mark on the world and other people. Her character has the courage to choose not to let the fear of death color her life. All the characters in the film are memorable and real. Lee Braithwaite is fantastic as Almut’s cooking assistant, as is Grace Delaney as daughter “Eila”.

I believe We live in time The emotional impact would have been greater if the story had been told chronologically. The story is told in mini-vignettes that occur randomly, more the way we remember life than the way life unfolds in reality. I understand what writer Nick Payne and director John Crowley were trying to do. However, our emotions form and build minute by minute in the timeline of life, and if you haven’t already lived these “stages of life” in chronological order, you lose the impact of that emotion building when you mess up the timeline. These are characters we as an audience don’t yet know, and we have to develop our memories of them as they unfold. According to science, we only become directors of our own memories once we have experienced our experiences. We have great control over the memory of moments we have experienced, but not before we have experienced them.

The name of the film sets the theme – that you have the power to create memories with your life, and that each period of time lived takes on a life of its own in your memory and in the memories of others. It would be wise to take some insightful thoughts from Garfield into this film: “I love that you don’t see a touristy Britain in this film. It’s a lackluster Britain where two people, a couple you pass on the street without thinking, something extraordinary happens in their lives.” He also said about his experience making the film while still caring for his mother mourned: “Every single moment feels sacred… it’s like a meditation on the brevity and sacredness of life… I can feel a much deeper source of hope.”

Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has provided the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a talent manager at Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. [email protected]