So I think to myself. Alright there’s a new rom-com that looks good. It’s also rated pretty high on IMDb. What more?
Genre: Romantic comedy – Oh nice, I am sucker for fine rom-coms
Director: Richard Curtis – Excellent! I’d loved his previous two films ‘Love Actually’ and ‘The Boat That Rocked’. Plus he is also the writer for ‘Notting Hill’, one of my favourite films ever. Excitement is a notch higher.
It revolves around time travel – Ah well, it looks like a perfect recipe, if well executed.
These were my thoughts before watching About Time. And was I disappointed? Not really, but it didn’t quite leave an impact. Or was I expecting too much, maybe yes. It is by no means a bad film but not something that I would highly recommend either.
The film is about Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson), a 21 year old socially uncomfortable character. On his 21st birthday his father (Bill Nighy) tells him an incredibly useful secret – men in his family can time travel, to any point in the past that they remember. So whenever there is some mishap or embarrassment, or need to re-do something Tim can go back in time and change the outcome of a situation. All he needs to do to fix these issues is go to the nearest closet or a compact room and clench his fists. Now this sounds interesting (barring the clenching fists bit) but maybe this whole going back and altering things has been so overdone that it loses its charm.
About Time is not the run of the mill romantic comedy. Yes it has all the elements of a Curtis film – locations in London, friendships, plenty of sardonic and sometimes rude humour, a socially reticent boy, a beautiful North American girl, a freaky young female relative, a doddery elderly male relative and some heavy rain. But it delves deeper and raises some profound questions.
The message that it gives out is that ups and downs are a part of life and no gift can save you from that.
Thus one should live life to the full, cherish each moment and not take things or people for granted. “Cherish the small moments as if they are most important.” Besides this, one of the main themes is the heartfelt father-son relationship. The scenes between them are some of the best in the film.
I did not quite Tim Lake in the beginning and thought he wouldn’t be able to match up to Rachel McAdams who plays his love interest Mary. However with time he grew on me and I think the two had a strong chemistry. However Rachel was underused. Though she is good in her role and very likeable (I absolutely did not like her fringes though), her character doesn’t have much depth. Whenever there is the slightest need to alter things, Tim always excuses himself for a moment and heads out of the room and she is not once shown questioning him. I liked Bill Nighy the best. He brings such warmth to his role with his spot-on acting. He steals every scene he is in with his charisma.
There are so many beautiful scenes in the film. One where Tim and Mary meet for the first time in a restaurant is bound to vow you. Another when Tim runs home to Mary late night and urges her to wake up as her had to ask her something important. Then of course the many scenes featuring Tim and his father.
Despite so many things working for it, the film is flawed and has plot holes. They might not come in the way of watching the film, because you are pretty much absorbed in this feel good movie, but they are disturbing. The individual parts are good but as a whole, there is something amiss. This can be one of the reasons I wasn’t thoroughly happy after having watched it. Overall, it is decent and worth a watch. And if you are going to stop making sense out of it, especially the time travel, you'll love it all the more!
Rating: 7.2/10
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