🔴‘We Live in Time’ Review: Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield Have Genuine Chemistry in Contrived👀

[Music] we live in time review Florence Pew  and Andrew Garfield have genuine chemistry   in contrived CA one moment award-winning Chef  almet Florence Pew is waking her beloved Tobias   Andrew Garfield and asking him to sample her  latest concoction the next it's the middle of   the night and now pregnant almet is parked on the  toilet while he times her contractions effective   love stories are composed of moments large and  small in we live in time John Crowley has made   what's Meant To Be A Greatest Hits version of  your typical romantic comedy serving up all the   key scenes from almet and Tobias relationship  meeting one another's families the marriage   proposal Parenthood divorce cancer diagnosis and  so on just not in that order it's a clutzy way   to tell a story but Crowley is confident that  the chemist history between Pew and Garfield   is so compelling people will want to watch his  movie again and again at which point almet and   Tobias memories will have become our memories  and the sequence hardly matters at least that's   one interpretation of a film hatched by a  claimed playwright Nick Payne that seems so   much less ambitious and lower concept than his  slender but brilliant one act constellations   a Multiverse romance written way back in  2012 before multiverses were all the rich   by contrast there's just one reality in we live  in time which is fine since that's how most humans   experience life but Crowley figures its emotional  beats will presumably hit harder if presented in a   more strategic order still fine since practically  all storytellers arrange scenes to suit their   narrative though rarely do they remix them in  quite so arbitrary a fashion as this for example   minutes after that taste test in bed scene Tobias  is back in the spare room of his father's house   deciding what to eat before work as a low-level  employee of the wabix team it's confusing to say   the least despite how bewilderingly sophisticated  our brains have gotten at rearranging disjointed   stories if you could follow everything everywhere  all at once then there something sometimes in no   particular order should be a breeze but it's not  since mapping out nonlinear narratives is a fine   art see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless  Mind or anything by Adam agoan and this   one airs in setting up certain events and then  never circling back around to them take away   the sequencing gimmick and you're left with just  another run of the mil cancer drama at the heart   of this strangely straightforward a24 release is  alit's diagnosis stage three ovarian cancer later   we learn that this case is a recurrence of an  earlier bout with the disease during which almet   had to decide whether to remove a single impact  OV or her entire uterus but we already know what   they decided since the couple has a daughter  Ella Grace Delany whom we've seen shaving her   mom's head for round two while on the subject  of timelines it's worth noting that Crowley   has watched Andrew Garfield grow up the director  effectively discovered the then future Spider-Man   Star first casting him as a juvenile delinquent  in 2007 S boa that means we live in time mark a   reunion a more mature project for both of them  but also a more manipulative one as Crowley   recognizes Garfield superpower the watering eyes  and quavering lips and summons it at every step of   their relationship rather than giving away where  their decade long love story takes them consider   only their first Contact when almet blindsides  Tobias with her car that's a memorable initial   spark to be sure except by the point Crowley  shows it we've already been to the hospital   so it's slightly disorienting to untangle which of  them is the patient hint it's the one in the neck   brace meet cute dter that could be the tagline for  a movie which is determined to make every scene   as endearing and slash or adorable as possible  cancer is an ugly disease and if we accept it   here as more than just a device then we live in  time could be a comfort then again the filmmakers   seem so committed to forcing an emotional reaction  terminal illness could be a cynical page from the   Nicholas Sparks Playbook so many of the moments  Crowley presents are touchstones in most people's   lives the child birth scene is a showstopper and  Tobias proposal bashfully delivered at the end of   a hallway lined with candles and carrots ranks  up there with hug Grant Classics that approach   gives people who faced cancer a swoony romance  to cling to though this couple experiences such   an idealized form of it normal folks might come  away feeling they're doing it wrong what we live   in time succeeds in doing differently is taking  the woman's concern seriously Tobias wants almit   to marry him and make babies but as an ultra  competitive personality she has different   priorities at once vulnerable and independent  Pew plays almet with the self-respect to assert   them right after alit's second cancer diagnosis  she pulls Tobias aside and poses a hypothetical   what if instead of submitting to another round of  treatment they were to live the coming months to   the fullest that's a clue to the logic that could  be operating beneath the movie's Kookie chronology   since Tobias clings to Memories the flashbacks May  well be his told mostly through his perspective   whereas almet insists on seizing each remaining  moment her commitment to a culinary competition   drives the plot forward who doesn't love a  gourmet cooking scene or several they balance   things nicely wedged between make UPS breakups  and Snogging several times Crowley teaches up   the best way to crack eggs on a flat surface if  only there were a way to unscramble his movie