What if every moment in life came with a second chance?
The night after another unsatisfactory New Year's party, Tim's father tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. They can't change history, but they can change what happens and has happened in their own lives. Thus begins the start of a lesson in learning to appreciate life itself as it is, as it comes, and most importantly, the people living... see more
What if every moment in life came with a second chance?
The night after another unsatisfactory New Year's party, Tim's father tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. They can't change history, but they can change what happens and has happened in their own lives. Thus begins the start of a lesson in learning to appreciate life itself as it is, as it comes, and most importantly, the people living... see more
If going through my reviews tells you anything, it's that I'm not one for a serious review. Hell, I was initially going to write that "I can't blame Tom for wanting to go home with Charlotte, the man really got Margot Robbie AND Rachel McAdams."
Yet, here I am. Giving this movie that I went in believing was nothing more than a dude time travelling to get a girlfriend, five stars. Again, my profile shows that I most thoroughly enjoy big, cinematic adventures with the likes of Shutter Island, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer. So, in what way does About Time fit in with any of those films?
It doesn't. I have never, in my years of watching and thinking about movies, had a movie that has made me contemplate my life more than About Time. It is so easy to be caught up in the stresses of the day and forget to notice the beauty that surrounds us. Lord knows I'm more than guilty of it. Having the ability to live each day twice is, of course, a massive help in having these "good" days, but the reality is we don't have that ability; we live the days that we choose to live.
In another vein, it is also easy to chalk up time travel to not being possible for reasons A-Z, yet somehow in About Time it makes sense, particularly with the birth of children. This is where Tom's goodbye to his father after the game of table tennis just wrecks me. The mutual understanding that the two of them have about this gift they have, and that they need to use it right, it just all ties together so perfectly. Even in the attempted rescue from Kit Kat's drunk driving accident, and then learning that his daughter would now be his son, it shows that you can't have everything you want and that some problems just have to solve themselves. It's brilliant, and I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for not watching this sooner.
Also Jesus Christ since when do I write movie reviews like this. Being short and funny is so much easier.
(Just a decade behind on this one.) An excellent and charming time travel story that focuses much more on the character relationships and emotional consequences rather than the technicalities and intricacies of time travel. The time travel does play into some laughs and a huge emotional wallop, but the plot is much more akin to a rom-com about the human connections that we so desperately need.
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