What’s a shame about the movie is that due to the marketing, it comes off as your typical romantic picture. Immediately, the male demographic takes off in the opposite direction and people like to write it off as just a “chick flick”. There are two problems with this: First off, just because a movie’s marketed towards women doesn’t make it bad. There’s this ridiculous classifying of “chick flicks” that implies that if a movie is meant to appeal to women, it should be held to a lower caliber than any other film. You hear critics talking about movies like “Bridesmaids” like, “if this is a “chick flick”, then call me a chick” or “this isn’t a “chick flick”, this is hilarious”. When did the appeal to gender matter more than whether it’s entertaining or effectively dramatic? Second off, and more logically: the movie doesn’t spend all its focus on the romance. At its core, “About Time” is about Tim’s life, his relationship with his family and friends, and the twists and turns his life takes, for better or worse. It’s a simple story about an ordinary man, and you know what? It’s refreshing!
Rare is a movie that doesn't feel the need to add in conflict for the sake of sparking up drama, but About Time does it well by delivering a great cast and top-notch writing. I love this cast; the main supporting ensemble feels like a real family. They talk about their problems, help each other, have fun. This is a family that really loves each other and from the absent-minded Uncle Desmond (Richard Cordery) to the spontaneous free-spirited Kit Kat (Lydia Wilson) and Tim's relaxed but playful father (Bill Nighy), I fell in love with them all. This is an ensemble cast that works.
Domnhall Gleason (Bill Weasley in the latter Harry Potter movies) plays Tim as the "adorable nerd". He balances that spectrum well: he has the fumbling charm of a Michael Cera with the sarcastic wit of a Jesse Eisenberg, never playing one or the other too far. The movie gives him a lot to work with and he handles it all, from the highest bliss to heart-wrenching tragedy. Tim is simple: he just wants to enjoy life and find love and the performance is endearing. He's very easy to root for.
Mary (Rachel McAdams) plays Tim's love interest and she's a great fit. She's cute and shy, insecure but never afraid to try something a bit off the wall. Her and Tim's chemistry is a lot of fun to watch: they banter and flirt, but the time travel element lets them play around with reactions, making for different scenarios and interaction. They enjoy each other and from beginning to end, it's fun to see them go through life together.
Now, the actors play their parts well, but a good actor does not a good character make. So who do you get to write these characters? Well, the guy who did "Black Adder" and "Mr. Bean" is a fair choice. Similar to those projects, Richard Curtis gives these characters wit and playful energy. There's a moment when Tim and Mary are walking around London when she tells him about her job as a professional reader for a publishing company, and as idiotically blunt (but funny) as he is, he asks if after a while, reading for fun loses its edge, like sex for a prostitute. Oh, does she have him done for! She gets him for it hard, and I was laughing all the way. Curtis plays his build-up smart, the punchlines aren't always obvious and the surprise makes for great comedy.
The problem with time travel in a lot of movies is that the rules for how time travel works and how one can affect their lives while doing so is either inconsistent, confusing, or both. Back To The Future, Quantum Leap, Free Birds: these ones made the notion easy to understand. Even in Back to the Future 2, when multiple timelines are strong together, the movie takes its time and it's not hard to follow. About Time works the same way. The initial rules are easy to understand and while the process for actually doing the time-travel is a bit random, (I just realized if Tim found a blue police box, it would fit the guidelines) it's simple and helps set up some funny punchlines. The rules get a little more complicated as the film goes on; it's definitely weird, but serves a purpose. To quote Captain Barbossa in the first Pirates of the Caribbean: "they're more like guidelines than actual rules." Time travel doesn't take up a focus in the film, but it does lend itself to a different kind of conflict. It's Tim's greatest ally and antagonist.
Overall, About Time is heart-warming, funny, dramatic, and above all, natural. The moral's one we've heard before but following these characters and the way they go about learning that lesson feels like a journey, not an after-school special. The acting's great, the writing is funny and intelligent, the movie makes you feel good. What more can you really ask for? Thank you, as always, for reading, and I'm the Man Without A Plan, signing off.
"About Time" trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7A810duHvw
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