Film Review: "We Live in Time"

Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh are outstanding in this touching, devastating, and poignantly funny romantic dramedy.

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Warning: Spoilers for the film follow.

If you know anything at all about my tastes–whether in film, TV, or books–you’ll know that I’m a sucker for a good romance. If there’s an element of tragedy or heartbreak thrown into the mix, then all the better. There are few things I love more than being able to swoon and sob in equal measure. The new film We Live in Time checks all of the right boxes and, suffice it to say, I absolutely loved it. 

Told in a nonlinear style, it follows the courtship, married life, and parenthood of Tobias Durand (Andrew Garfield) and Almut Brühl (Florence Pugh). After an unusual meet-cute (Almut hits Tobias with her car) the two begin a relationship, eventually going on to have a daughter. All the while, Almut continues to pursue her career as a renowned chef, a pursuit that Tobias, loving and tender, steadfastly supports. Interwoven with all of this, however, is the far more sobering storyline focusing on Almut’s ever-more-desperate, and doomed, battle with ovarian cancer. In We Live in Time the light of love and the shadow of death are never far apart. 

Pugh is nothing short of amazing as Almut, bringing a steely strength to a young woman whose professional ambitions are repeatedly stymied by her body failing around her. Though it might sound cliche, Pugh has always been one of those actresses who excels at combining strength and vulnerability into a single scene, and she does this repeatedly in We Live in Time. In one of the most emotionally fraught moments–in which her decision to compete in the Bocuse d'Or, a prestigious cooking competition is revealed, much to Tobias’ anger, since it conflicts with their agreed-upon wedding date–she tearfully explains her reasoning. She loves her family dearly but, more than anything, she wants their daughter to see her as something other than just a shadow, a mother that died while she was young. Cooking is not just her profession; it’s the thing that gives shape and definition and purpose to her life, all the more so now that her time is running out. Tobias may not agree, and he may be deeply hurt, but he nevertheless signs on, just as he always does.

Pugh is more than matched by Andrew Garfield. As he showed in Tick, Tick…Boom! Garfield has the ability to channel profound depths of feeling and emotion using nothing more than his boyish good looks and his soulful eyes. He slips right into his role of Tobias, a man who devoutly loves his wife and who supports her no matter what she decides to do, whether that’s becoming involved with the Bocuse d’Or or eschewing another round of treatment in order to simply live the best life she can with the small amount of time that’s left to her. I honestly think that this is one of Garfield’s best performances to date, and it was impossible not to love Tobias. While Almut’s strength is evident in every step she takes and her ironclad commitment to her profession, his is a softer, subtler form of strength, one founded on support and empathy and compassion. Every time that Almut tries to push him away he still manages to come back, and he stays with her right to the end.

There’s an emotional maturity and honesty to We Live in Time that helps to elevate it above what is, on the surface at least, a rather melodramatic and treacly plot (not for nothing have many reviewers compared it to The Notebook and other similar films about doomed love). This emerges most clearly in gentle, quiet moments, as when Tobias’ father (Douglas Hodge) cuts his hair in preparation for a date with Almut, or when Almut and Tobias attempt to explain to their young daughter that her mother is gravely ill. It’s even there in a fateful meeting with the doctor who, in an attempt to console her patient and her husband, offers them chocolate. These little grace notes are effective precisely because they imbue everyday moments with a poignant grace, one that gains in power as Almut’s illness grows more intense and it becomes clearer that it is terminal.  

All of this isn’t to say that there aren’t some very funny moments, however. Indeed, We Live in Time is that rare romantic dramedy that actually manages to keep the laughter and the tears in perfect balance. Take, for example, the moment when Almut–after several false alarms–actually goes into labor. When they get stuck in traffic she makes her way to a gas station in desperate search for food but, in a bizarre twist, ends up having to give birth in the bathroom, with Sebastian and two attendants playing midwife (with the assistance of medical staff on the phone).  It’s a silly yet heartwarming moment, particularly since we in the audience already know just how much this child means to both of them. The film is full of moments like this, when we in the audience are invited to see the ridiculous and the humor in the everyday even (especially) if we’re also aware that Almut’s cancer is ultimately going to take her life.

I remain a bit on the fence when it comes to the narrative structure, which shuttles between different periods in the couple’s life. On the one hand it really does help to illustrate the core philosophical point at the center of the film’s title. Regardless of what stage we’re at on life’s journey–whether we’re in the throes of love, whether we’re getting a divorce, or whether we’re facing terminal illness–we can’t escape from the fact that we are, inextricably, living through time. On the other hand, the rationale behind these switches in time can sometimes be difficult to concern. I might just need to sit with it more, though, and it could well be that this is one of those aspects of the film that lands more effectively on a rewatch. 

Ultimately, though, I found myself enchanted, and devastated, by We Live in Time. It’s the type of film that stays with you long after it’s over, pondering the beauty and the heartache of everyday life.