About Time

Dir: Richard Curtis

2013

****

I'm not much of a fan of Richard Curtis' film work but I have always loved the TV shows he's written over the years. I liked Four Weddings and a Funeral when it came out, saw through its incredibly pompous facade and saw it for the rather sweetened love story that it was. I liked the idea behind The Boat that Rocked but I didn't think it reached its full potential, Bean should have remained a TV show, I disliked Bridget Jones and I loathe Love Actually. I didn't sit down to About Time with high expectations. Early on in the film the brilliant Domhnall Gleeson came across as a bit of a Hugh Grant, very much like his character in Four Weddings and a Funeral in fact. Indeed, many of the characters seemed rather familiar in their behaviour, it is safe to say the cast were very much on Richard Curtis mode, which I really didn't like. Being a bit of a nerd, and a hopeless romantic, I loved the fact that this was a sci-fi romance. However, very early on in the film we are given the basic rules of Time-travel, only to watch each and every one of these rules broken in each chapter. The very specific type of time-travel featured in the film is very clever, it means the plot can never get too complicated or indeed, too silly. However, the truth is that the film became more and more convoluted as the film progressed, almost feeling like it was made up on the spot without and real conclusion in mind, or at least with a beginning and an end with a good hour of filler. It is incredibly frustrating to be shown a great idea, only to witness the author destroy it in front of your very eyes. Domhnall Gleeson's character uses his powers to change the past in order to give himself a better future. Nothing wrong with that, apart from the fact that he stalks and eventually tricks himself into bed with the young Rachel McAdams. This didn't sit well with me in the slightest. All the other negative elements of the film I could overlook but this is the film's gaping wound. I actually really enjoyed everything else about the film, it is spectacularly over-sentimental but when done well it is something that is hard to resist. The later scenes with Gleeson's character's father, played by the brilliant Bill Nighy are genuinely tender and actually quite profound. It was an example of brilliant writing and excellent performance that made these later scenes rather magic. The plot holes were irritating and the ethics questionable but the conclusion and the message at the end more than made up for it.