Written and Directed
By: Richard Curtis
Rated: R for language
and some sexual content
Release Date: November
8th, 2013
Review By: Sean
Kayden
“About Time” is the latest feature
film from writer/director Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”). This romantic/faux
sci-fi tale is about one young man’s desperate pursuit to find love with his
newfound ability to travel back into time. Oddly enough, he finds it rather
quickly. The movie was advertised as a romantic comedy but is only for the
first half at that. It switches gears and is more about this young man and his
ability to go back into a certain time of his life. At first glance it was to
aid him in finding true love. Then it led to helping others like his sister,
who dealt with her own relationship woes. It was also a link between Tim and
his father to maintain a strong connection. The movie wants to be so many things
and never really decides on which it will ultimately be. It’s a movie where
there’s a lot of telling rather than showing. It is also very dialogue driven
and the dilemmas never seem all too serious. At first it’s romantic and that
sort of fades once love is secured. It has a few lighthearted moments, but a
comedy it is not. The third act heads into more drama, but never does it feel
utterly dramatic. “About Time” suffers from a gimmicky plot device that becomes
more tedious than clever. It has sweet moments scattered throughout and has a
trio of fine performances especially from the father character played by Bill
Nighy. However, “About Time” is far too long for such a thin plot. It had the
potential to be something far more superior with the time traveling element as
a key component to the film’s story.
Lead actor, Domhnall Gleeson is
quite likeable as Tim. He’s endearing in a dorky, oblivious sort of way. The
problem is how the film puts so much emphasis on how it seems like the end of
the year not to find love at 21 years old. Not only does he marry the first
girl that loves him, but also had another chance with his first love he hadn’t
seen in a number of years. The movie also feels too long with how it’s over the
span of many years. Rachel McAdams as the love interest is lovely as usual.
However, she doesn’t have a whole lot to work with after the initial setup,
eventually leading up to marrying the kind and perceptive Tim. McAdams’
character strangely takes a backseat as Tim focuses on helping his sister with
her own complexities and unhealthy relationship (which is never shown only told
through dialogue). After that small subplot is quickly resolved, the last part
of act three is where Tim and his father connect. It almost feels as if it is a
little too late. I wish the film expanded the father-son dynamics more. Don’t
get me wrong, it’s still rather sensitive, but the murky plot device makes the
film almost feel too phony. Luckily, when you have great actors like Bill
Nighy, your material is elevated to greater heights more so than it should be
with such shortcomings found in the screenplay.
In
the end, “About Time” is a fine film that’s simply too elongated. There’s quite
a bit of filler to make it feel a bit overstuffed. Fine performances, a couple
of tender moments and a few scattered laughs make “About Time” merely a Redbox
rental/Netflix stream then a must-see love story in theaters. Unfortunately,
when it finally ended, the only thing that came to mind was, “about time.”
Grade: 3 out of 5
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