We Live in Time
Director: John Crowley
Writer: Nick Payne
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Grace Delaney
Seen on: 17.1.2025

Plot:
Tobias (Andrew Garfield) just got divorced when he meets Almut (Florence Pugh). Or rather she meets him as she hits him with her car. As an apology, she invites him to her restaurant, kicking off a romance that takes quite a few turns as they build their life together – and must face that it is not forever when Almut is diagnosed with cancer.

I didn’t know much about We Live in Time, but I will watch anything with Florence Pugh, so there I was, completely surprised and taken in by a film that is not only a beautiful love story but also one of the very few examples of a healthy relationship on screen. I loved it.

I didn’t realize at first that the film jumped through various timelines, or rather how it jumped through timelines, so I thought at first that Tobias divorced Almut and then met somebody who looked just like her which had me already cursing the film. But turns out, it was just past and future jumbled in the narration, and that signaled only very subtly by the filmmakers. Once I got the hang of that, I was able to really sink into the film.

And I loved so much about it, above all the way Tobias and Almut relate to each other. It’s not the kind of sickly sweet romantic relationship where people never fight, nor is the kind of „we need drama for these characters, let’s do some miscommunication quick“ relationship that movies (and books) feature all too often. What we get here is two adults who might lose their temper or make some bad decisions, who might not always say the right thing in the moment, but who always, always communicate with each other about their needs in a warm, caring and affectionate way. It instantly made them one of my favorite couples on screen ever. (Okay, this status was also achieved by Almut being bisexual, a fact the film acknowledges clearly and never makes an issue.)

Garfield and Pugh are a dream-team on screen, complimenting each other’s performances and characters in subtle ways. It is the honesty and humor and warmth they bring to the film that keeps it from feeling like a cheap tearjerker. Instead of manipulative the film – while definitely bringing tears – and their relationship feel deep and true.

The heyday of the RomCom seems over, and We Live in Time is not your usual RomCom either. (Neither was Brooklyn which I just realized was from the same director and also scratched my romance itch very nicely.) But if we get movies like it instead of movies like The Notebook, it makes up for that particular loss in many ways.

Summarizing: absolutel lovely.