There’s been a bit of a romance renaissance happening in the post-pandemic cinescape. I have distinct memories of my teen years being dominated by romantic comedies, most of them starring Jennifer Lopez, and each with a simple variation on theme. In the wake of big budget action movies and comic book serials becoming the dominant offer at the box office, romance has had to adapt to reposition itself as a top contender for cinema goers.
Where once the genre was full of near carbon copies, the new wave of romance flicks have taken pains to ground itself in reality. This new romance era, with the exception of films like 2023’s Anyone But You that pay homage to those that came before, is not as interested in giving audiences a gooey happy ending. Instead, they are in delivering stories rooted in realism.
Spanning the course of a decade and told through a non-linear narrative, We Live in Time follows the relationship of Tobias and Almut as they experience the highs and lows of life together. Directed by John Crowley, We Live in Time stars Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh and is written by Nick Payne.
Tobias Durand (Garfield) is a salaryman struggling through a quarter-life crisis when he literally collides with Almut Bruhl (Pugh), an up-and-coming chef. When she accidentally hits him with her car, Almut unknowingly shakes Tobias out of his funk and ignites a renewed excitement for life and love. In the hospital the pair quickly bond and before long begin dating, but their future and love for each other is tested. Together, they weigh up their options of starting a family and pursuing career dreams.
Payne’s script isn’t overly complex, far from it, but it is layered and beautifully grounded by pitch perfect performances from Garfield and Pugh. The pair have delightful chemistry, faultlessly matched in excitement and tension. A relationship like Tobias and Almut’s runs the gamut of emotion from anger, concern, joy, and sadness. Both Academy Award nominated actors, Garfield and Pugh were put to the test to portray the whole spectrum of feelings with incredible nuance. While Pugh carries most of the narrative, Garfield does his fair share as the film’s emotional support, with every scene when they’re together overflowing with a natural chemistry. Pugh and Garfield took Payne’s relatively simple script and turned in remarkable performances, balancing the film’s tragedy with levity in a way that marks We Live in Time as a career highlight for them both.
The choppy timeline is an interesting narrative choice, one that might be a deal breaker for some viewers, but works to make the painful moments of We Live in Time a little easier to digest. There are no date stamps or title cards to make out the time shifts and viewers are left to use context clues like Pugh’s changes in hair length or physical appearance, which does result in some early confusion. However, once you adjust to the structure it stops being so jarring. There are moments where some of the segments feel too brief, but the way Payne links them to each other prevents the narrative structure from feeling incomplete. It’s one of the few films to use a non-linear narrative structure that didn’t leave me scratching my head for longer than a few minutes.
We Live in Time is a tender look at the complexities and normalities of modern love, bolstered by stellar leads that relish in pulling at our heartstrings but will hold your hand affectionately while it does. Watching the relationship between Almut and Tobias develop from first meetings to career changes, illness and parenthood, We Live in Time achieves a remarkable feat of being hopeful in spite of its pain.
We Live in Time is in cinemas from January 16th.