Review: About Time (2013)

I’ve been watching a lot of heavy movies recently, trying to catch up on a lot of the Oscar nominations. It’s exhausting! That’s how I found myself on a Sunday night looking for something light and fluffy that I could chill out with. After previously looking up Domhnall Gleeson’s filmography (for blog research purposes, of course) I remembered spotting a movie I’d been curious about for a while, About Time! How its taken you this long to watch this I do not know!!!!  Also, I think the real question here is how I have watched this film countless times and never reviewed it?!

Written by Richard Curtis (also responsible for Love Actually and Notting Hill), About Time is the story of Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), and his search for love after discovering at the age of 21 that the men in his family have the ability of time travel. It’s a premise I laughed about 3 years ago when I saw a trailer, but I have a much more open mind now. If you’re a huge sci-fi fan and love time travel theories, you’re going to need to switch off a little, but there’s enough to make the movie stand out from other romances without making itself look silly. Admittedly, the first time I watched this I did overthink the time travel stuff and tried to make it work in my head but once I gave up it was so much better!

All Tim needs to do to activate his powers is hide in a closet, clench his fists, and think hard about the specific time in his life that he wants to go back to. Whereas his Dad (Bill Nighy) used his power to read an inhuman number of books, shy Tim simply wants a girlfriend. He falls in love with his sister’s friend Charlotte (Margot Robbie) who is staying for 2 months, and finally professes his love on her last night with the family. When she tells him he waited too long and should have told her sooner, he does exactly that, only to be told to see how things go and come to her on her last night. Doh. Sorry men, us ladies can be annoying like that sometimes.  Oooh I really didn't like Charlotte, who wouldn't love Tim and his bumbling charm, foolish girl!!

This is what makes Tim leave his parent’s home in Cornwall and move to London to live with his Dad’s friend and pursue his career in Law. Only, the world of Law is male dominated, and Tim finds himself constantly stuck with his annoying colleague Rory (Joshua McGuire). A night out at a blind date in the dark restaurant changes everything when Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), although Tim very quickly realises the problems with the butterfly effect when he travels back in time.

The first time I watched this, I felt the butterfly effect coming on and I was panicking, I really wanted him and Mary to get together.  I was convinced the whole time however that time travel was going to have a much bigger part in the film.  One of my favourite tag lines for the film was "A new funny film about love. With a bit of time travel." 

I won’t go any further into the story because it’s so much fun to watch it all unfold. I thought the 2 hour runtime would be far too long, but it moved along at such a fast pace I was actually a bit gutted when the credits rolled! I wouldn’t class About Time as a comedy as such, but there’s one scene in particular that had me laughing out loud so hard I cried. It was the combination of typical British weather on a majorly important day, and the dramatic, Italian music playing that was just pure comedic genius! Agreed, loved that scene! My favourite, had to be the repeated bedroom scene!

I still watch this over and over again, i still laugh, cry and fell completely gutted when its over.  Domnhall Gleeson provides perfect geeky charm, while Rachel McAdams is her usual lovable self.  Everything about it is just perfect.

This could have been such a cliche movie, but it’s like nothing I’ve ever watched before, and tugged on my heartstrings in ways I didn’t know was possible. It didn’t end the way I was expecting at all, and really made me re-evaluate how to find happiness.