A dude gets hit by a car and meets the girl of his dreams—but he’s not her #1 priority—in the emotionally resonant We Live in Time.
Andrew Garfield gives a powerful performance as Andrew Garfield while Florence Pugh delivers another riveting one, playing a focused and determined chef who won’t let anything stand in her way (boyfriend/husband/daughter/terminal cancer) to win a prestigious European cooking competition. Gordon Ramsay would be proud.
Truly, Garfield’s character Tobias doesn’t seem like a stretch for the talented actor—he seems at home playing likable, slightly awkward and often emasculated men—but he is nonetheless at the top of his game here. Pugh, perhaps the more versatile or adaptable of the two, steals the show with a searing display of raw power and ferocity. Her character is the driving force of the film, and the more compellingly written—you understand her drive, you feel for her plight, and yet she isn’t necessarily likable or one to draw your compassion (or expect it). But that’s also the point, and what makes We Live in Time so interesting—Garfield plays an ordinary dude, while Pugh plays the best of the best, the type of A-personality who knows what she wants and will work her ass off to be superior, even if it means hurting feelings along the way. There’s a coldness to her character, Almut, that sets her apart from your typical better half found in most “romantic dramas.”
We Live in Time, in the end, is about love, but it’s not just about love of people. Yes, the relationship between the two leads is important, but Almut’s love of what she does, what she aspires to be, what she expects of herself, is equally strong. And that’s what takes this movie to another level. It’s a romantic drama, but it’s a romantic drama where these two people are trying to figure out their place in each other’s lives—warts, work, and all. It’s about a man learning where he can and must compromise his vision for family, and a woman whose vision risks cutting out those around her.
We Live in Time is an emotionally powerful, often riveting, and even unexpectedly funny drama. It doesn’t go the places you may expect, and Pugh’s character is unlike many you’d expect in a romantic drama, but that’s what makes it work so well.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.
