Warning: This review contains spoilers. 

A24’s newest release, “We Live in Time,” premiered in theaters on Oct. 11 and with its limited theatrical release garnered $225.9k during its opening weekend. John Crowley directs the film, which features Andrew Garfield as Tobias, a newly-divorced information technology technician who works for a British cereal company, and Florence Pugh as Almut, a single professional chef and restaurant owner who competes in Bocuse d’Or, a high-stakes, career-defining international cooking competition. The movie shows the evolution of their love from the moment they first meet to the time Almut is diagnosed with cancer for the second time.

The story follows Tobias and Almut’s relationship in a nonlinear format from beginning to end, tackling the messy feelings that come with being alive that humans don’t realize they’ve signed up for. Some of these themes include self-grieving and coping with watching someone teeter on the lines of life and death, and choosing how to define the rest of one’s life once terminal.

Although I’m not an avid viewer of romance movies, the magnetic attraction between the two leads left me curious to see the rest of their story. After having watched the film, I gladly give it eight out of 10 stars. The actors’ performances phenomenally embody Almut and Tobias’s anxieties, passions and humanity amid their characters’ personal and romantic arcs. However, I feel that the movie could have strengthened Tobias’s characterization and employed fewer graphic scenes to further ground its themes.

While the director’s creative choice to tell this story through the use of montages and time skips helps solidify its narrative, what truly makes the movie successful is the acting. 

Garfield and Pugh revitalize the standard romantic chemistry shown in films — their characters’ romantic story is depicted so realistically and passionately that I had to constantly remind myself that these actors aren’t actually in love with each other. Their performances portray their characters’ romance as believable and not over the top; this is an impressive feat considering the emotional weight of their characters’ journey (multiple sex scenes, a graphic and intense childbirth scene and the couples’ arguments, to name a few) are all neatly packed into a nearly two-hour runtime. Garfield and Pugh vividly portray their character’s tender moments as well as their stress, grief and frustration for no longer being in control of their love life. Prime examples of this are the family scenes throughout the film, the characters’ first interaction at the hospital when Almut ran Tobias over and their struggle to cope with Almut’s worsening condition. The acting allows the movie’s themes of love and mourning to come off so transparently. 

Love isn’t something that one can just fall into, and it isn’t always an exhilarating experience, as most romantic comedies make it out to be. The ordering of the movie sequences reinforces the notion that love is messy and difficult at times. There’s pain and pleasure in the film’s depiction of love, but “We Live in Time” shows the in-between moments, evolving modern portrayals of love as being something to fight for — something to keep alive. The movie never makes the audience doubt that their love will persevere.

I appreciated this because Almut is very career-driven. She became a top chef and would’ve become a professional figure skater were it not for her dad’s passing. Her forgetting to pick up Ella due to being distracted by an intense training session and wanting to remain working and taking care of her family, and not just the latter, is something that women are often criticized for. 

Tobias, at first, reflected society’s conventional views. He encouraged her to take a step back from cooking and spend more time with Ella before she died — that is until Almut explained her perspective. She confides that she wants Ella to know that she lived a full life and was more than just Ella’s mother who died from cancer. Tobias, with tears in his eyes, sympathizes with her pain and assures her they will find a way to figure things out. It’s a powerful scene that speaks volumes for women worldwide who have been in her shoes.

It’s hard to pick out stand-out moments that were compelling to me because of the short run-time and the brilliant performances of the actors. However, the (arguably) happiest scene in the movie is when Almut finds out that she’s in remission from her first diagnosis of cancer. Almut and Tobias go to the carnival and their love bounces off the screen as they spend a few short, yet provocative moments together being purely in love. The scene gives the viewer a break from the constant intensity, which allows it to carry the weight that it does because of the nonlinear format flashes of the story pieced together. There is this brief bliss with the lens flares, stark bright blues and reds that showcase how vibrant the characters truly feel, but never a moment of hope, because early on it is revealed that Almut’s cancer returns and is later revealed to be more aggressive despite the chemotherapy. It’s a simple cene, yet Pugh and Garfield’s subtle performances convey volumes of heartbreak. 

Pugh captures Almut’s fear and self-grievance, all while Tobias struggles to show his sadness and opts to hold Almut’s hand. Garfield’s soft, shaky attempt of comfort, a measly reassurance all while looking away as tears stream down his face, captures the painful duality of watching someone you love wilt away.

The proposal scene is arguably the most defining scene of the movie. It comes midway into the movie, but narratively after Almut’s second diagnosis, and it is here where the characters and themes truly shine. The sequence starts with the camera following Almut returning home, where her cooking supplies are strewn out on the floor, indicating her to follow. The destination leads to Tobias with candles laid out in a heart for her.

Garfield did a wonderful job of portraying Tobias’s anxiety with his body and voice. His eyes beg for Almut to understand him and see through what he struggles to say. Choked up, Tobias can not bring himself to read the words he had written for Almut, and she understands that. The camera stays on Almut reading his words, Pugh’s face reacting intensely and then cuts to Tobias on his knees with a ring in hand, showing the weight and love these characters have for each other.

One of the more intense scenes, if not the most intense scene, is the fight that Almut and Tobias have after Almut forgets to pick up their daughter, Ella from school because she was training for the Bocuse d’Or, despite Tobias encouraging her to take a step back from competing to focus more on recovery. 

The shift in seeing anger from Tobias as he’s yelling at Almut, trying to understand why she’s doing all of this and not focusing on her recovery encapsulates the grief and mourning of someone struggling to accept and process the fact that they’re going to lose someone they love dearly. It also hurts because this isn’t Tobias’s first rodeo losing someone he loved for reasons out of his control, as his first wife left him to pursue an international job opportunity and no longer shared Tobias’s vision of a family. 

This is the second time throughout the entire film the characters argue, and yet every word thrown is visceral. 

Almut’s line about wanting Ella to think of her as not someone who suffered from cancer but someone who preserved and continued to make the best out of her life’s pursuits with cancer hit hard. Pugh’s delivery was compelling enough for me to put aside my frustrations with Almut for not being upfront with Tobias about how she wanted to proceed with her diagnosis from the beginning. A core obstacle the characters face is their differing opinions about how Almut should proceed with her cancer’s return. Initially, Tobias is upset at Almut and supposes that she doesn’t care about her family enough amid her terminal diagnosis, but then Almut’s line makes him understand and they share a tearful moment sitting and just holding hands, which spoke volumes about their love and what love should be. 

The most painful moment of the film comes when Almut reveals to Tobias that she’s been training and competing in the chef competition and that her team is scheduled to make the final competition. 

Almut had been keeping the competition a secret and elected not to share that the date their wedding had been booked was also the same day as the competition. After confessing that she’s planning on participating in the competition’s grand finale, Tobias asks the question that the audience knows the painful answer to: When is the competition? 

I truly appreciated that the only follow-up was what the movie provided — Tobias storming out of the house, sobbing as he threw out the wedding invitations — and not on the dinner table or a scene of Almut attempting to fix things. It is one of the seldom moments that Tobias gets the screen all to himself while the scene isn’t more than a minute long and reeks of the pain that Garfield so superbly portrays. It was emotional to see Tobias holding it together for his family he knows will be broken, meanwhile he couldn’t even get the one thing he wanted. And all the while, their love never takes a hit because of this.

I like that hope is rarely addressed or spoken on screen. You get a different perspective watching a movie feeling fairly confident that the unfortunate will happen and the story is focused on navigating that. It is a refreshing story because love cannot always conquer all and inspire hope.  

I also appreciated that the movie didn’t spend so much time showing them fall in love. I enjoyed how quickly and naturally they fell in love — with no drama or any unnecessary fluff or tension. 

While the movie is on the shorter side, the pacing never feels rushed or delayed. Every moment merely exists in time. This was largely successful due to the nonlinear storytelling of time with the viewers being exposed to experiences that are inevitable to the characters before they know it. The audience knows that the characters will have a child, that Almut will beat her first cancer diagnosis and that her cancer returns before the characters get those experiences, which lets the movie come off as a hopeful romance instead of a hopeless one plagued by trials and tribulations.

My two main critiques were some of the intensity of the graphicness and the lack of focus given to Tobias. 

The movie relies heavily on graphic nudity and sex to convey the authenticity of the story, which works on occasion and in the scenes leading up to Ella’s birth. However, a good chunk of these scenes were unnecessary and overt; if cut, they wouldn’t have taken anything away from the film. 

The concept of “less is more” works well in the movie, except the movie focuses so much on Almut’s presence that we rarely see Tobias, who has a lot of unexplored depth. 

The movie focuses on Almut’s career, and rightfully so, given the impact it has on her life, especially given her diagnosis. However, Tobias spends only one scene at work and more with his family — alluding to his family-oriented values and lack of interest in his career. However, his anxiety, panic attacks and close bond with his father aren’t followed up on throughout the movie. Seeing him struggle and cope with mourning Almut would give more depth to him and let the audience see how he’s doing as well as give the movie more natural dialogue scenes. 

There’s a line in the movie where Tobias is called just a regular guy in comparison to Almut’s feats. The movie focuses on Almut, but Tobias is just as important to her; I would’ve liked to see more of that interpersonal relationship.

Likewise, the movie would’ve benefitted from having a more conclusive ending. While the ending is clearly defined, the final family scene should’ve been longer and held more weight. Almut, Tobias and Ella are ice skating and then Almut skates ahead, waving at Tobias and Ella, insinuating her passing. And just when you think there is hope that just maybe everything does work out for this family, the final scene of the film is Tobias and Ella tending to Almut’s hens and garden and he teaches her to make eggs the way Almut had when they first met, confirming her passing. I found this an interesting scene and would’ve liked to see Tobias’s relationship with cooking more defined in the film given Almut’s passion for it. We never truly see Tobias’s perspective, and I believe that to be a shame.

I feel like the movie would’ve benefitted from seeing the characters spend time together and talk; something to commemorate the decade of experiences they undergo would’ve grounded the film’s themes further. 

In short, “We Live in Time” is a fresh take on romance, portraying the complexities of love and grief that gives audiences plenty to think about. Garfield and Pugh do a wonderful job of carrying the movie’s plot and pacing, thus my rating of eight out of 10 stars.