Original caricature by Jeff York of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh in WE LIVE IN TIME (copyright 2024).
What makes for an exceedingly memorable romance on screen?
Certainly, the writing needs to be smart, the actors need to have chemistry, and the obstacles their characters face should feel like genuine stakes. However, I think there is an X factor that separates the good from the great and that has to do with whether the audience would want to spend more time with this couple than the running time of the film or TV series. The romances that hit me hardest contained such a crucial characteristic. I wanted a lot more time with Jenny and Oliver in LOVE STORY. I felt the same regarding Katie and Hubbell in THE WAY WE WERE. To this day, I still think about Marianne and Connell from the Hulu series NORMAL PEOPLE and wish they’d do more episodes. Today, I’m adding another couple to my list – Almut and Tobias (Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield) from the new big-screen romance WE LIVE IN TIME. Through big moments and small, they are one fascinating duo – fun, feisty, and deeply in love. And I fell in love with them too. And I wanted more time with this compelling pair.
It doesn’t hurt that Pugh and Garfield are two of the very best actors working today, capable of making a quiet moment as compelling as a page of dialogue. Still, their many charms are only dialed up more by the fascinating characters written for them by screenwriter Nick Payne and directed with such precision by helmer John Crowley. Tobias is licking his wounds after a busted first marriage, trying to figure out how to connect better with a partner, let alone determine exactly what he wants from a relationship. He’s bright, funny, and sensitive, but he can also be stubborn and wishy-washy too. Almut – now there’s a name – is similarly clever and sensitive as well, but her headstrong nature can be both an asset and a detriment. And when they meet – through a meet-cute if there ever was one involving a car accident – they realize that they’re drawn to each other for what they have in common, as well as what they don’t. They love their shared ideals, but where there is tension, they feel that as vividly.
In addition to the layers revealed about each character, doled out slyly over the one hour and 47-minute run-time, is a fractured structure that never conforms to an A to B to C storyline. Instead, Crowley, Payne, and editor Justine Wright jump around in time, emphasizing big moments and small, depending on what the scene tells about the couple at certain junctures in their life. Early on, we know that they will have a child together, but the ups and downs of conceiving do not spill out in a quick montage. Instead, various moments along that part of their journey are revealed, adding gravitas, or sometimes humor, to comment on other events in their life together too.
What makes this romance so utterly exceptional is that despite the melodrama inherent in such material – the fights, the breakups, certain challenging health issues – it’s filmed and acted in a way that never feels showy or theatrical. Quite the contrary, the tone of the film is naturalistic and unhurried, with even the most dinky moments given their due as the bigger ones. There’s one scene where the two bathe together and the sexiest part about it is how Tobias stacks a couple of chocolate biscuits on Almut’s pregnant belly sticking out above the suds. Such moments give the storytelling a scrapbook feel, with all of the off-handed moments and oddities being captured in between the pages along with the candid pics and ticket stubs.
Much of the film focuses on the two as parents too, and the interactions shown with young daughter Ella (Grace Delaney) stand out as captivating as anything else revealed about the characters. And there’s such a looseness to the tone that it feels quite real, almost improvisational for the actors. We know it’s not, of course, but that’s how lived-in this all feels and it’s impressive filmmaking. Suffice it to say, the film is very intimate, like we’re a fly on the wall observing the moments of love and family. We can’t help but feel duly invested in this couple.
I wanted more time with them and felt a bit crushed when their story here was over. It has a lot to say about loving together, living together, and growing together. And how we use whatever time we’re given is up to us to make the most of it. I wanted more time with Almut and Tobias, but I’m glad the film made so much of the time we were given.
