Title: About Time

Directed by: Richard Curtis

Runtime: 2 hours 3 minutes

Watched via: streaming on Starz

IMDb synopsis: At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.

If you are like me, when you saw “From the creator of Love Actually” in the trailer, you were immediately inclined to give this movie a watch. Then you add a cast including Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, and Bill Nighy and you definitely have my attention. Now, if you have not seen About Time (2013), be warned there will be spoilers ahead.

When Tim (Gleeson) is told by his dad (Nighy) on his 21st birthday that all the men in their family can time travel, he understandably has his doubts. He is told by his father that the women in their family are not aware of this ability. As for the rules, he may only travel backwards in time and only to a time in the past that he has a clear memory of. But what about the Butterfly Effect? Not an issue at all, says dad. At least it has not been an issue yet.

So how does it work? Well, just find a dark room or area, clench your fists, close your eyes, and picture the point you want to travel back to. When you open your eyes, you will be back in that moment.

One summer, Tim’s sister (Lydia Wilson) has her friend Charlotte (Margot Robbie) stay with the family for a summer. Tim is smitten and tries using the time travel ability to perfect his interactions with Charlotte. What he finds out is that time travel does not give you the ability to make people fall in love with you.

As the summer comes to an end, Charlotte returns home. Now, much like in Vigilante, Margot Robbie has a brief appearance on screen and then disappears. This time around though, she makes it to the 17-minute mark.

Flash forward and Tim is with a friend at a dark dining experience where he happens to be seated at the same table as Mary (McAdams). Once the dinner concludes, Tim waits outside to see Mary for the first time and becomes smitten. When returning home, his roommate Harry (Tom Hollander) is in shambles. There was an awful, botched performance during his new play’s opening night that ruined the entire show. Hearing this, Tim decides to try and help Harry out. He uses his time traveling abilities to give Harry a mulligan on his opening night. While successful, Tim notices that Mary’s number is no longer in his phone.

Remembering Mary mention Kate Moss, Tim goes every day to a Kate Moss exhibit in town in hopes of running into Mary. Eventually, he finds her and approaches her only to find out that she has no memory of every meeting him. In fact, she is a little creeped out that he knows her name.

Tim realizes that now he is going to have to win over Mary and use the time travel strategically to his advantage in order to keep the universe tilted in his favor with her. This is exactly what he does. He and Mary are happy together, they seem to have a wonderful life. Even when bumping into Charlotte at an event (55-minute mark for Margot’s brief reappearance), Tim is convinced that Mary is the one for him.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I am a fan of Love Actually. As for About Time, I knew I had seen it before but honestly did not remember a lot of the plot. After a rewatch, I can say that Richard Curtis is two-for-two with me. Yes, there are some issues with the explanation of time travel and a lot of questions surrounding the fall out of time travel use. But this film does not try and be a sci-fi film, it stays in the romantic drama lane. For that, I am willing to give it a pass to an extent. What helps is that the writing is relatively strong, and Gleeson and McAdams turn in fantastic performances.

What about you? What are your thoughts on About Time? I want to hear them, let me know in the comments or on social media!

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What awaits us next in the Margot Robbie filmography? Next up is a doozie. Margot portrays Naomi Lapaglia in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. That post will be up next Monday!

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