A film
review by James Berardinelli, for Reelviews.net, Nov. 4, 2013.
Time travel stories are tricky things.
Although there’s no hard-and-fast way to develop one, consistency is a key. As
a screenwriter, when you’re dealing with things like reworking history and
spinning off alternate universes, it’s necessary to stick to a series of
established rules. Figure out how time travel works in your story and don’t
vary from it. By violating this basic precept, writer/director Richard Curtis (supposedly marking his
final time behind the camera) turns his romantic fable into a mish-mash of
contradictions and contrivances. With more attention to detail, this could have
worked, but the time travel aspects are so badly executed that the movie as a
whole falters and eventually rips apart at the seams.
We know from Curtis’ past endeavors
that he’s a romantic, so the presence of sentimentality (bordering at times on
mawkishness) isn’t a surprise. However, where films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually can
boast a portion of incisive wit to go along with the soft center, About Time’s sweetness tends
toward saccharine. There’s a bit of Groundhog
Day here, only not as clever. There’s some of The Time Traveler’s Wife (italicized by Rachel McAdams’ participation in both projects), but not as
emotionally effective. And there are echoes of The Butterfly Effect without
the overt darkness. In fact, while it’s possible to compare About Time to numerous other films, the
comparison will rarely be favorable toward this movie.
The central conceit is that 21-year old
Tim (Domhall Gleeson) can travel in time.
There are limitations, of course: he can only venture backward in his own
personal time stream and he has to find a dark, quiet spot to do the deed. I
have no problem with this; for there to be a story, you have to accept this
premise. The problems emerge from the inconsistencies that result from Curtis
changing the rules on the fly.
Tim learns the ropes from his father (Bill Nighy, Love Actually, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), who is also a time traveler. Then he
starts trying things on his own. His primary goal in life is to get a
girlfriend. He sets his sights on a gorgeous blond named Charlotte (Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street)
but that doesn’t work. Up next is Mary (Rachel
McAdams, Midnight in Paris). It
takes three meet cutes before Tim and Mary have a life together but Tim’s
occasional time traveling adventures threaten to mess up their happy home.
However, this being a Richard Curtis movie, things turn out all right in the
end.
The actors do capable jobs with their
material. Domhall Gleeson, who often plays slightly awkward secondary
characters, is affable and amusing, but not really leading man material in a
romantic comedy. Rachel McAdams plays a part she can probably do in her sleep
and, to be truthful, she doesn’t bring a lot to the role except a nice smile
and a pretty face. Mary isn’t much of a character - beyond being Tim’s life
goal she’s mostly a blank slate. Bill Nighy, as is almost always the case,
shamelessly steals scenes. The same is true of Lydia Wilson, who play’s Tim’s flighty sister, Kit Kat. I don’t
recall having seen her in anything previously, although I wouldn’t mind
additional future exposure. Based on her work here, she seems equally at home
with comedy and drama.
Although About Time doesn’t work as a whole, there are a
few memorable scenes. One that stands out is the first meeting between Tim and
Mary, which takes place in a restaurant where everything is in total blackness.
Later, there are a few touching moments between Tim and his dad, although the
final one ends with an unforgiveable cheat. It’s okay for Curtis to want to
manipulate the audience but doing it by invalidating his cardinal rule is a poor approach.
About
Time may work better for those who don’t
really pay attention to the logic of the narrative. This seems to have been
written for those willing to ignore internal inconsistencies and just go with the flow. The basic framework is
about a nerd getting the girl and settling down to have a life with her - solid
material for a middling dramatic comedy. It’s ironic that the spice Curtis adds
to the mix results in a noxious flavor. On the whole, I could see why some
might call About Time pleasant and inoffensive. But if Curtis wanted to write a story involving time
travel, he should have at least expended the requisite effort to do something
that’s consistent and makes sense, rather than just making things up as he goes
along. Some viewers may not care but, for those who do, it’s pretty damn
inexcusable. [Berardinelli's rating: ** out of 4]
Labels:
comedy, drama, fantasy, romance, space-time
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