NOV 7, 2024 | ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT | By Maya Rosen
A24’s star-studded romance, “We Live in Time,” hit theaters on Oct. 11 and people can’t get enough of Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield in this tear-jerker. Director John Crowley brought a lot to this film, exploring the central theme of time and its limitations through a non-linear love story and repeated clock motifs. But it was Pugh and Garfield who brought this cliche storyline to life through their powerful chemistry, devastating dialogue and quick humor. While less adept performers would have struggled to pull together the fractured storyline, Pugh and Garfield did so flawlessly, paying close attention to the moments between simplistic dialogue.
However, I must warn that this movie is not for the faint of heart. I haven’t cried to rolling credits and a blaring instrumental track since “Marley and Me” was released in 2008. Still, if you have been looking for a solid script held together by stellar performances, grab some tissues and head over to Roadhouse Cinemas (or wait a couple of weeks for it to come out on streaming.)
The film is set in England and stars both Pugh and Garfield in a rare state: their natural accents. Pugh plays a highly successful chef, Almut, and Garfield plays a loving cereal company representative, Tobias. The story chronicles their life together in a non-linear order, beginning with Almut’s cancer diagnosis. At this point, the two leads live together with their young daughter, Ella. We then travel back in time to view their non-traditional “meet-cute” (Almut hitting Tobias with her car) and explore the trials and tribulations of their budding relationship.
The frequent jump-cuts and the order the story is told, with time being marked only by changing Almut’s physical state, allows the film to defy much of the norms of the romance genre. Namely, this occurs as they argue about their differing desires to have children early in their relationship, even though the audience has already been introduced to young Ella. This removes the characteristic romantic drama question of “Will they make it?” — instead allowing the audience to live in the time offered rather than question what lies ahead. This structure mirrors the convoluted nature of memory in a very authentic way. It displays the complexities with which we interact with time and our struggles to make sense as it continually passes, leaving pieces, and often people, behind.
Although the story lacks the melodrama characteristic of the genre, it is a welcome defiance, favoring, instead, very real issues of love and loss, treating time as both a gift and a thief. In all honesty, the simplistic storyline was not what I expected from the same studio known for avant-garde works like “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Beau is Afraid” and “Midsommar;” yet, the realism, when masterfully executed, was refreshing.
“We Live in Time” is a masterclass in understated storytelling, relying on the brilliance of Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield to elevate a simple narrative into something profound. For anyone (unafraid of a few too many jump cuts) ready to embark on a bittersweet journey, I would highly recommend this film. And if I haven’t convinced you after all that, I encourage you to trust in the rest of Florence Pugh’s filmography… She can do no wrong.