‘We Live In Time’: Toronto Review

Dir: John Crowley. UK/France. 2024. 107mins 

How can we make sense of a relationship? Is it higher to look again on it chronologically or, as within the case of We Stay In Time, is it wiser to dissect completely different moments from completely different intervals, searching for out the behaviours that repeat over time? Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh give delicate performances as a pair whose historical past is introduced in a jigsaw puzzle of disparate eras, every section of their courtship talking to the others. Brooklyn director John Crowley goals to craft a tear-jerking, life-affirming salute to profiting from our days, athough the jumbled timeline and melodramatic thrives can distance the viewers from the melancholy story he needs to inform.

The 2 leads discover the nuance in characters who could be a little simplistic

Taking part in as a Particular Presentation at Toronto, the image will shut San Sebastian and play at London earlier than opening in US theatres in October. (The UK launch is scheduled for January 1.) The favored stars add business muscle to this date-night providing, and people on the lookout for an excellent cry — to not point out a reaffirmation of the facility of affection — will little question reply.

We Stay In Time introduces us to Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh), who on the movie’s onset are coping with the worrying information that Almut’s ovarian most cancers, beforehand in remission, has returned. Elevating a younger daughter, they debate how aggressive they need to be in searching for therapy, with Almut proposing that maybe, quite than making an attempt chemotherapy (which has no assure of success), they need to merely benefit from the time they’ve left collectively earlier than the inevitable happens. 

As they focus on these choices, the image flashes again to different time intervals, together with their preliminary assembly — when she by accident hit him along with her automobile — and the months earlier than the start of their youngster. We Stay In Time repeatedly cycles between these storylines, though the emphasis is on the present day, when Almut, a famend chef, is invited to enter a prestigious cooking competitors. However is that the very best use of her time, given her prognosis?

Working with a script from playwright Nick Payne, Crowley reunites along with his Boy A star Garfield for a romantic drama that boasts loads of candy, flippantly humorous moments. Within the movie’s early levels, viewers might surprise in the event that they’re watching parallel realities during which Tobias and Almut discover each other in distinctive methods. However ultimately, it turns into clear that that is all the identical story, with the filmmakers encouraging us to note the similarities within the rapport between the characters over time. Tobias is a shy, cautious fellow — the kind who has to take copious notes earlier than he delivers an impassioned speech to his beloved — whereas Almut lives life with abandon, by no means letting something get in her approach. Even when she is recognized with most cancers, she refuses to provide in — an echo of when, earlier of their relationship, she resented Tobias’ need to overplan their future.

The 2 leads discover the nuance in characters who could be a little simplistic. Garfield brings an emotional fragility to Tobias, who desires to care for Almut, regardless of her resistance to his well-intentioned white-knight behaviour. In the meantime, Pugh has the tricker function of an bold chef who’s put into the place of getting to decide on between household and profession. In the end, We Stay In Time reveals one thing pertinent about Almut’s previous, which helps clarify why she has lengthy felt that she is in a race in opposition to time. Pugh delivers a soliloquy close to the image’s finish that too neatly encompasses her character’s contradictions, however the actress locates the ache and terror in Almut’s confession.

Sadly, We Stay In Time’s likeable tone, accented by indie-pop songs from The xx and Wolf Alice on the soundtrack, is undercut by a story construction that’s initially intelligent however in the end unrewarding. Telling this love story in a extra simple approach would have uncovered how standard its most cancers plotline is — a disappointing realisation that the fractured chronology delays, however can not overcome.

As well as, Crowley and Payne too usually gravitate towards the cutesy and the pseudo-cosmic, infusing this romance with a feel-good, vaguely mystical vibe that robs the connection of feeling concrete. Garfield and Pugh have such immediate chemistry that one by no means doubts why their characters would find yourself collectively. However in the end, We Stay In Time views Tobias and Almut as abstractions, and by leaping forwards and backwards in time, it by no means makes them very current.