REVIEW: WE LIVE IN TIME

4/5

About Time

108 Mins. Starring: Florence Pugh & Andrew Garfield. Screenplay: Nick Payne. Director: John Crowley. In: Theatres.

Love is timeless. Whether it be with Anne Hathaway in 'One Day' with Jim Sturgess, or what movie-star Julia Roberts shared with bookshop owner Hugh Grant in 'Notting Hill'. Sticking around forever, like the orange juice that stained her top. Now, it's time we marvel at another classic case of charming chemistry. As the thunderbolt* that is Florence Pugh, meets an amazing Spider-Man in Andrew Garfield, whose had his Weetabix, for another lovely London, romantic classic, 'We Live In Time'. But dear God, this is no rom-com, as the nuanced non-linear narrative from screenwriter Nick Payne ('The Sense Of An Ending', 'The Last Letter To Your Lover') and director John Crowley ('Intermission', 'Brooklyn') will absolutely break you.

Garfield ('Never Let Me Go', 'Tick, Tick...Boom!') and Pugh's ('Midsommar', 'Little Women') Tobias Durand and Almut Brühl (absolutely amazing names) compellingly connect as they live in the time that they have left, and what carries on with their daughter (played perfectly by Grace Delaney). Whether loving, fighting, or being even more combustible than the steamy sex Pugh shared in 'Oppenheimer' with Cillian Murphy. You'll never guess how this Weetabix rep and former figure-skater turned Bavarian-fusion chef met, but it's a love story for the ages, a decade in the making. All as this Toronto International Film Festival debuting movie of last year finally finds its heart in Japan, after an A24 US October release, followed by France and the UK splitting the difference with StudioCanal in the New Year. Expect to see this 57.5 million dollar grossing movie on Film4 soon, my fellow Brits. From pens that work, to finding the perfect way to crack an egg, this movie stays with you like ink in your shirt pocket.

Riding wild horses on a classic carousel, these young hearts that run free can't be dragged away in a love so bright it could burn you. It's a good job Florence and Andrew have got each other's back through thick and thin, in a day and age where sadly our limits to love stretch to how many people we can swipe through in a single day. Chicken coops, cooking competitions and figure skating, that will move you more than Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding in the George Michael devotion of 'Last Christmas' in London's Covent Garden, are all on the menu. And 'The Other Place's' Lee Braithwaite and 'After Life's' Kerry Godliman give as good as they get in a show that can't be stolen from our two leading lights. Like Vanessa Kirby's 'Pieces Of A Woman', a new love letter to our hearts and home lives has been written. And one particular scene in a petrol station, we shouldn't spoil, is beyond beautiful and as real as it gets, as there won't be a dry eye in the bathroom stall. In this life, where sometimes we're too busy to see the beauty, we need to take the time, whilst we still have it. Live. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'One Day', 'Love & Other Drugs', 'The Lake House'.