TIFF 2024 Review: We Live in Time – “signing yourself up for heartache, but the journey is exquisite.”

Courtesy of TIFF

Back in 2015, director John Crowley made the much-loved Brooklyn, a period romance with Saoirse Ronan that also happened to play at the Toronto International Film Festival.  I fell hard for that movie, the cinematography, the story, it all came together so incredibly well, so the bar for his latest, We Live in Time, was pretty high.  While this movie has a decidedly different tone, Crowley seems to have constructed a meaningful and emotionally impactful film that earns each of the tears you’re sure to shed.

Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) meet under the most unlikely circumstances.  But there are moments in your life where you realize things moving forward will forever be different.  This is one of them.  A meet-cute leads to a relationship, leads to a partnership and then all of Almut and Tobias’s moments, both big and small are woven into a non-linear tapestry by screenwriter Nick Payne.

We follow three main chronologies with our main characters, the one where they meet and their romance takes off, one where Almut is pregnant with their child, and the present day, where she is given a diagnosis of stage 3 ovarian cancer.  It’s a recurrence of a disease she has already fought through before.  Almut is faced with a decision of whether to pursue treatment again; if it is worth it to go through months of misery with no guarantee, or to live life to its fullest with what time she has left.  Quality versus quantity.

The time jumps can be a little disorienting at first, taking you out of the moment, but you quickly get used to them and the clues that define each chronology.  Being able to change timeframes allows Crowley to inject humour when it’s needed, or bring us back to the gravity of this couple’s reality.  It won’t work for everyone, but the construction of the film also allows us to get to know this couple while understanding the memories that have brought them where they are now, in the face of an impossible decision.  It also all plays to a pretty great indie soundtrack, which includes one of my personal favourite Wolf Alice tunes.

Florence Pugh absolutely glows at times in this film.  She’s perfectly cast as Almut, who is a high-end chef just about to open a restaurant when we first meet her.  If you’ve ever seen her cook on her socials or YouTube posts, you can understand why she seems to be so natural in the kitchen in this film and seems to have a lot of fun with this aspect of her character.  She’s given a lot of heavy lifting here, from a scene having to give birth in a gas station bathroom, to depicting Almut’s illness.  Pugh hasn’t really given us any reasons to doubt her since she burst onto the scene in Lady Macbeth and she doesn’t start now.  This isn’t to discount what Garfield manages to achieve here, it’s one of his best roles, but his performance is one that has to be more emotionally restrained.  But, his joy and his pain are all on display.

None of this would matter however if the two stars didn’t complement each other.  Thankfully, Pugh and Garfield have this very natural chemistry together that seems very tender and intimate at times, passionate at others (think Lady Gaga singing with Bradley Cooper level smouldering).  It’s a joy to see them work together and is ultimately what makes this film tick.

We Live in Time will be a crowdpleaser of a film, yet it still handles its subject matter with maturity and sensitivity.  This type of tearful romance is not necessarily breaking new ground, even if the way it tells the story is kind of unique. By seeing them at different points in their lives, it feels like we actually know this couple.  They are flawed and complex people which only makes their romance feel more realistic. But this investment comes with a price. We know where this is going. Watching We Live in Time is signing yourself up for heartache, but the journey is exquisite.

We Live in Time had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival September Friday September 6, 2024.  For more information please head to tiff.net.