Technical assessment: 3.5
Moral assessment: 3
MTRCB rating:
PG 13
CINEMA rating:
V 14
Tim
Lake (Domhall Gleeson) gets a rather weird gift when he turns 21: his father
(Bill Nighy) reveals to him a family secret that’s supposed to be kept between
them—all the men in the Lake family are gifted with the ability to time travel. No need for elaborate space suits and
abracadabras: just find a dark secluded place (like a closet), close your eyes,
clench your fists tightly, tell yourself where (or when) you want to be, and
poof, you’re there. Tim thinks
it’s a joke until he tries it to rectify something that happened at a party the
previous night—and it works. Time
leaves Cornwall for London to study law and find the girl of his dreams. After a suspenseful and virtual “blind”
date in a lightless bar he sees her—and they fall in love.
Director
Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting
Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral) spins a delightful rom-com that weds the
whimsical and the earthbound.
Despite the incredible element of time travel, the plot advances
credibly and does not really capitalize on the supernatural to drive home its
point. Gleeson (Bill Weasley in
the Harry Potter series) and McAdams are naturals as a loving couple, matching
chemistry and perfect comic timing; Nighy couldn’t have been better cast. About
time scores high in the technical department, from characterization down to
costume and make-up (note McAdams’ bangs an inch too short of her desired
look). While there’s really
nothing extraordinarily exciting going on, the stimulating story and the fast
pace keep viewers hanging on to scene after scene till the end.
It
is a pleasure to find a down-to-earth movie among the sci-fis and superhero
flicks in the multiplexes’. About time is also a soft-sell for
the joys of marital fidelity, planning a family, growing up being cared for by
devoted parents, etc. The movie
shows that in our time when broken families seem to be the norm, and when
parents and children become strangers if not enemies, it is possible to still
build your own world where children are wanted, welcome, and raised in
love. Premarital sex is implied,
but considering that About time is
not a Filipino movie but is rather set in a culture that permits it, this
slightly off element is overshadowed by the many other positive values it
depicts. Even time travel is used here
as a mere device in delivering the movie’s message: that while there are things
in our past that we wish we could change, life sooner than later lets us glide
into maturity until we reach that point when living from day to day we find joy
and contentment.
