About Time

Any romantic comedy penned and helmed by Richard Curtis – the writer behind British genre staples Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary and Love Actually – offers the obvious elements: a bumbling, unlucky-in-love lead, a seemingly unattainable object of affection, and a courtship that’s cute, quirky, yet inescapably styled as a sweet exercise in wish fulfilment. In each area, About Time delivers; however Curtis’s third directorial effort also complicates his familiar components with musings on existentialism, contemplating the ways in which we choose to shape happiness – romantic, and otherwise.

The use of time travel as a central conceit, ostensibly to add a twist to the usual meet-cute-driven scenario, aids in this endeavour, as it does in differentiating the always-formulaic offering from the masses of comparable content. As each expected narrative event occurs, from the awkward initial encounter to the offbeat first date to the difficulties of combining lives and lifestyles, the use of Groundhog Day-style “do overs” allows not only repetition for comedic effect, but understanding. In the pursuit of amorous and amusing perfection, the film ponders the all-too-rare ability to accept the setbacks with the successes.

On his 21^st birthday, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson, Anna Karenina) discovers his family’s secret: all the men, including his father (Bill Nighy, Jack the Giant Slayer), can move between the past and the present. The revelation comes with the requisite warning, his dad imploring that Tim use the special skill for emotional rather than materialistic gain. When Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams, Passion), his abilities are employed to ensure their pairing; of course, such temporal trickery has consequences.

At first, Curtis seems uncertain of what he wants his film to be, becoming stuck in a predictable – albeit still endearing – cycle of Tim’s attempts to secure Mary’s fondness. Then, after an extended excursion through the usual romantic milestones, the traditional rom-com aspect becomes only part of the equation; instead, the film’s concern shifts to bigger questions of family and contentment. Both parts serve their purpose, the former demonstrating the posturing and presentation inherent in any relationship, the latter refreshingly showing the fruitlessness of such minutiae. Time travel ties the two together, but – frustratingly – only with a blatant disregard for the feature’s own stated logic.

It comes as no surprise that the end result is uneven – and yet, warmth and well-placed intentions aim to balance the film’s overt emphasis on emotional manipulation. That Curtis’s writing is sentimental, his direction heavy-handed, and his feature filled with further stock parts (Hanna’s Tom Hollander and Never Let Me Go’s Lydia Wilson as eccentric supports, included) is similarly foreseeable; less estimated is his skill in moulding the ever-likeable Gleeson into Hugh Grant’s heir apparent. Indeed, for all its attempts to spin the standard into something different, About Time is at its best when it allows its leading man to cultivate his unconventional charm. Gleeson’s scenes with Nighy eclipse the remainder of the film’s affable fare; the movie, like its viewers, just takes the good with the bad.

Image: About Time Universal Pictures UK