About Time is a true delight. Funny and touching, the film manages to really strike a strong connection with its audience, and uses a rather unconventional plot device to express the most conventional of subjects—love—in a new and endearing way.
Having recently turned 21, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) is let in on the family secret by his father, (Bill Nighy)—apparently, all the men in the family are able to travel back through time. Naturally Tim believes this to be a joke, but when he finds himself able to return to the dodgy party from the night before, he is happy to discover it’s anything but.
As someone who is fairly clueless when it comes to women, Tim initially uses this newfound skill to right his awkward mistakes. But, sadly, even time travel is not enough for him to overcome his lack of cool.
He moves to London to begin his career as a lawyer and finds himself living with a struggling playwright and an old friend of his father, Harry (Tom Hollander). It is here he meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), and they immediately fall in love. But, when a time travel mishap means he misses out on meeting Mary, he must work hard to get his love life back on track, while preventing further time travel errors from sealing his demise.
With Nick Cave heading an incredible soundtrack, the film is written with Gen X and early Y’s clearly in mind. It’s nice to be the intended audience, with every actor, joke, song and awkward situation seemingly written just for us.
The promotional materials are quick to point out that the same people who delivered Notting Hill and Love Actually (Richard Curtis wrote both these films) are responsible for About Time, and the connection is also clear in the film itself.
Well written, littered with an impeccable cast with the real capacity to make you laugh and cry, it’s as good, if not better than these predecessors.
Want to feel good about the world? Watch About Time, and you will. It’s about love, about family and about loss—and it really is about time we had a great romantic comedy to indulge in.
I loved every minute of this one.
Directed by: Richard Curtis
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy
Rating: M
Runtime: 123min
Release date: October 17
Reviewer rating: 4/5
