About Time (2013)
Directed by Richard Curtis
The night after another unsatisfactory New Year's party, Tim's father reveals to him that the men in their family have the ability to travel through time. They can't change history, but they can change what happens and has happened in their own lives. Thus begins the start of a lesson in learning to appreciate life itself as it is, as it comes, and most importantly, the people living alongside us.
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Thus, his latest comedy, “About Time,” which he wrote and directed, is a disappointment, not only because it keeps reminding you in spots of other films and plays that toyed with similar ideas — oh, let’s say “Groundhog Day” and “Back to the Future” or even the Thornton Wilder classic play “Our Town” — but also because the movie doesn’t measure up to Curtis’ own high standards.
If anything, it too closely recalls Harold Ramis' fantasy masterwork "Groundhog Day."
About Time seems to be locked in the same revolving pattern, repeating itself over and over but without the eccentric wit of Bill Murray’s recurring Groundhog Day—a movie which Stephen Sondheim once considered musicalizing (his new plan of action is now, instead, collaborating, with Ives on a similar time-sensitive storyline).
Initially, getting a girlfriend is the reason Tim hits rewind on his life and there are faint echoes of Groundhog Day as he experiments with ways to impress blonde bombshell Charlotte (Margot Robbie), then Mary, saving one of the bigger laughs for their first night together.
Sure, Bill Murray pulled similar stunts in Groundhog Day , but both the universe and Andie McDowell saw through his shit.
One could make the case, I suppose, that Bill Murray more or less did the same thing to Andie MacDowell in Groundhog Day, but it's worth pointing out that his efforts to woo her by turning back the clock ended in failure.
(It’s interesting that every time-travel-themed love story, from Chris Marker’s masterful “La Jetee” and “Back to the Future” to this, is haunted by death and loss, no matter how comedic the register.)
Thus, his latest comedy, “About Time,” which he wrote and directed, is a disappointment, not only because it keeps reminding you in spots of other films and plays that toyed with similar ideas — oh, let’s say “Groundhog Day” and “Back to the Future” or even the Thornton Wilder classic play “Our Town” — but also because the movie doesn’t measure up to Curtis’ own high standards.
There is a brief mention of the butterfly effect, but director Richard Curtis does not explore with quite the satisfactory depth of, say, 1985's "Back to the Future" or 2004's " Primer " what it means when one person's time-travel can affect an entire universe's reality.
Some great films such as Back to the Future, Field of Dreams, The Terminator, Time Machine and more have explored this phenomenon.
But this is not The Terminator , nor even Back to the Future .
Thus, his latest comedy, “About Time,” which he wrote and directed, is a disappointment, not only because it keeps reminding you in spots of other films and plays that toyed with similar ideas — oh, let’s say “Groundhog Day” and “Back to the Future” or even the Thornton Wilder classic play “Our Town” — but also because the movie doesn’t measure up to Curtis’ own high standards.
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"About Time" will never stand up as solid time-travel science-fiction any more than the cult romance "Somewhere in Time" did in 1980.
Even the title of the new effort from the creator of “Love, Actually” is a sad cliché, but the whole plot treads the same territory as “Somewhere in Time,” “The Lake House” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” and its mixture of whimsy and mawkishness is familiar, too.
And any movie is improved by the presence of Bill Nighy, who is at his dotty best here, along with such supporting lights as Withnail & I duo Richard E. Grant and Richard Griffiths , who make their last-ever screen appearance together, in a delightful cameo appearance.
Fans of the cult 1987 British comedy Withnail & I will also enjoy seeing Richard E. Grant and the late Richard Griffiths reunited for one last time in an extended cameo sequence.
In the beginning, Tim's use of his powers is no less sexist and borderline predatory than Scott Baio lifting skirts in "Zapped!" Tim manipulates his soul mate, Mary (a lovely Rachel McAdams), never revealing his power to her, with no acknowledgement of that ethical quandary.
The filmmaker has blended a “Futurama” episode with “Serendipity” (and perhaps specks of “In Time” and “Sliding Doors”) to craft that near-extinct being, the quality date movie.
…movies like Sliding Doors (1998) and Kate & Leopold (2001) ?
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In other words, it’s like every romcom ever made, in which one lover employs a trick (Dustin Hoffman dressing up like a woman in “Tootsie” is an extreme example) to woo the other lover, then has to admit to the trick and hope he’s forgiven.
Some of the greatest of all comedies (Elaine May’s A New Leaf and The Heartbreak Kid or Billy Wilder’s The Apartment and Some Like It Hot) feature people behaving despicably, all without any cost to our enjoyment.