Movie Review: About Time
I had been excited to see About Time for a while, since it looked a little like The Time Traveler's Wife (which Rachel McAdams also starred in). It's more of a comedy than that film, but it had some unexpectedly sad scenes in it as well, and overall it's a good choice for a matinee.
On his 21st birthday, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) learns a secret from his father (Bill Nighy): the men in his family can time travel. They can only go back in time, not forward, and they can't go to places they weren't actually at in the moment, but it's a good way to reverse poor choices and/or use it for good. Tim decides he's going to use it to get himself a girlfriend, and he sets his sight on his sister's friend Charlotte (Margot Robbie), who is staying with them for a few months. That doesn't work, but a year or so later, he's living in London and meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), and he uses his newfound ability to make things perfect between them and woo her. He eventually learns that there are sometimes consequences for time traveling, however, and so he must be careful of when he uses his power and why.
Domhnall Gleeson (who apparently was Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter series) and Rachel McAdams have great chemistry together in this film. I wasn't sure I'd buy them together, because at the beginning of the film he's supposed to be in his early 20s and so is she - yet in real life she's 34 - but the film spans many years, and they were able to make her look appropriately young. I thought it was interesting that he had to go back in time a few times to make sure they actually met, showing that time travel isn't all "fun and games." The other characters in the movie was good as well but most were minor characters, except for Tim's mom and dad and his sister, Kit Kat (Lydia Wilson).
Yes, see this movie, but save it for a matinee. It's more comedic than Time Traveler's Wife, which I liked, but there's some serious moments in the film as well. The writer and director of the movie is Richard Curtis, who penned Love Actually, so I'm not surprised that the movie had such great romance in it. I also loved how awkwardly cute Tim (Gleeson) was, and how his time traveling actually made him mature faster (emotionally) since he had to deal with decisions related to it. Overall, this was a good time-traveling movie, but it's not really one you need to see in the theaters - it's a cute "fluff" movie but nothing more.
About Time is in theaters today, November 8th, and is rated R with a runtime of 123 minutes. 3.5 stars out of 5.
