Review: We Live In Time

Image courtesy of A24.

It's been a while since I've seen a weepy that aims to tug at the heartstrings like "We Live in Time," a reasonably decent romance featuring solid performances by Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. In the early 2000s, these types of films were seemingly everywhere, especially following "The Notebook" and the boom of Nicholas Sparks adaptations. But they've been curiously fewer and far between since - perhaps the COVID-19 era wore out viewer's tolerance for stories centered around diseases.

This film, which is told out of sequence (and, on occasion, a little confusedly) tells the story of the romance, marriage, childbirth, and ultimately battle against cancer for Almut (Pugh), a successful chef who wants to take her career to the next level, and her husband, Tobias (Garfield), whose work has something to do with promoting a cereal, although it's oddly nebulous.

It's a little unclear why director John Crowley ("Brooklyn") tells the story out of sequence, other than the impact that a specific scene can have when we learn new information that sheds light on something that came before. At times, this can feel gimmicky, but at others it works.

The film's most interesting moments revolve around Almut's work as a chef. Once she is diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer, she is told by her doctor to go easy in terms of work. However, she takes part in a challenge involving chefs from around the world - and without her husband knowing about it - in which she partners with a younger chef from her restaurant. The film also features what has to be the most memorable birth sequence of recent memory.

"We Live in Time" is somewhat by-the-numbers in how it handles the romance between Almut and Tobias - they have a meet-cute that involves her hitting him with her car - and her battle with cancer. But what makes the scenes work, for the most part, are the film's lead actors, both of whom are good here. 

The film doesn't reinvent the wheel for this type of picture or do anything you haven't seen before - its non-sequential format is its most unique element - but it's slightly better than your average film in this subgenre.