Welcome to a period of time where films about love are taking a more realistic approach. Instead of dreamy relationships full of hundreds of roses and lavish dates a girl dreams of, Hollywood is tackling deeper situations that arise between two people who love each other.
Earlier in the year, It Ends With Us (based on the New York Times bestseller by Colleen Hoover) painted a story of a woman who built up the courage to break the cycle of staying with an abusive husband. With domestic violence on the rise, there was no better time than now for that film to be greenlit, and, despite the drama that came with it, the story was incredibly necessary for women to see unfold.
We Live In Time sheds light on a different hardship as Almut (Florence Pugh) is diagnosed with recurring ovarian cancer and has to juggle her career as a chef as her health declines. To make matters worse, rather than taking a step back from work to avoid straining herself further, she hides her diagnosis from her boss and enters a major culinary competition. Her loving husband, Tobias (Andrew Garfield), is in the dark as to where his wife goes during the day, which eventually leads to a toned down version of the argument scene in Marriage Story.
If there’s one thing We Live In Time should be commended for, it’s the film’s ability to properly convey three levels of emotions between the two leads: a blushing love that flourishes, followed by the joy of them building a family, to the distraught receiving of a life-altering diagnosis. It’s not often that a film successfully leaps through a series of events that stray from chronological order. Most of the time, the viewer gets lost trying to piece together what’s current and what’s in the past, especially when there is no drastic change to the character’s physical appearance (things become easier to follow once Almut shaves her head).
Pugh is one of the best actresses of her generation (she’s in good company with Zendaya and Anya Taylor-Joy), and her performance here can be described by her rawness as she partakes in some rather intimate scenes. Beyond the few minor sex scenes, we witness Almut give birth naked in a gas station bathroom in addition to a handful of nude scenes. Pugh’s devotion to the character derived from a place of not only showcasing her acting chops, but her use of her body to depict the very real nature of being pregnant.
Powered by a strong script written by Nick Payne, We Live In Time addresses genuine concerns with dating in your thirties against a woman’s biological clock. There’s a particular scene where Tobias realizes shortly after meeting Almut that he may very well be falling in love with her. Instead of simply going with the flow, he poses a very real question: “Are kids your thing?” Although Almut is initially offended by this being asked so early in the dating phase, it’s a very deal-breaker type question for some that people often don’t address as early as they should. There’s nothing worse than wasted time and, given Almut’s strong reaction against having children, Tobias walks away because, after all, they want different things.
Fast forward some time and, after a wild amount of pregnancy tests, the pair become pregnant with a baby girl, Ella (played by the adorable Grace Delaney). While the daughter doesn’t get a ton of screen time, what she represents is the core of what is important to Almut: being remembered as someone other than being someone’s dead mum.
Through a compelling story of not letting cancer define how you live your final moments, Pugh and Garfield deliver solid performances, allowing us the opportunity to see them outside of their typical projects. While Pugh holds her own as a strong female lead, Garfield is as charming as ever, perhaps making this his most charismatic role to date. When the two were announced as starring opposite each other in a romance, social media was flooded with people expressing their excitement as we knew we were in for a treat. Both actors have built resumes absent of bad roles so it was very promising to see them paired together.
While they gave us a beautiful movie full of hope and hurt, it doesn’t scream “Academy Award winning” like you may be led to believe. From an accidental meet-cute to Almut dealing with her health condition head on with no regrets, director John Crowley’s We Live In Time is a tearjerker that tackles life’s unexpected twists and turns through the amazing chemistry between Garfield and Pugh. Although it concluded with an ending that was rather underwhelming, it was a breath of fresh air to experience the very harsh truth of just how unfair life can be.
We Live In Time hits theaters October 11, 2024.