We Live in Time Review – A Sincere, Effervescent and Intimate Tale of How We Use Our Time Here

With multiple timelines to bounce between, Crowley lays a magnificent playground for his two actors, who are given space to grow and change over time. Garfield and Pugh take full advantage of this as they navigate the complexity of what it means to meet someone, fall in love, and build a life with them.

The chemistry curated between them is as you'd expect from two charming Academy Award-nominated actors who are at the top of their game and in the zeitgeist. They take full advantage of the hook they know they have on their audience and don't cheat us of the magnetic contrast of their opposites attract edge.

We Live in Time is sincere but effervescent, with Crowley an expert at building connections, not just characters. There is careful attention to the act of falling in love, with Crowley treating it with the importance of a war movie, making it so much more compelling than its average counterpart.

The love between Almut and Tobias is gentle. It's patient, but not without complexity, and has echoes of what the Bible speaks of in the highly quoted 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – "Love is patient, love is kind", etc. It's refreshing to see such a delicate dynamic in a medium that often favors messy, toxic, and difficult.

The non-linear approach has been critiqued by many, but it is arguably what makes the film so effective. It gives space for the romance to breathe and builds us a world where Almut and Tobias know what it is like to live and love peacefully, making it all the more devastating when Almut's illness threatens a lifetime of that.

Time's cruel reality is that it is limited. Eventually, we run out of those precious seconds. However, Crowley makes the case that what we choose to do with them alters the course, not only of our lives but of those we loved and who loved us.

Andrew Garfield has explored this concept in much of his recent work, including through his performance as Jonathan Larson in tick, tick... BOOM! three years ago.

During the press tour for that film, Garfield spoke openly about his journey with grief in the wake of losing his mother, saying, "I hope this grief stays with me because it's all the unexpressed love that I didn't get to tell her."

We Live in Time reflects a similar message. It makes the case that no one person can ever be truly forgotten and that the love we give leaves a legacy far greater than the trivial ambitions we laud as important.

All of this is delivered over a deeply moving 107 minutes, sure to bring a tear to your eye and have you scrambling to get on the phone with someone you love the second you leave the theater.

It's the kind of film that shifts perspective and reminds us that most of what we place importance on in this life does not matter if we neglect those who pour love into us.