Announced nearly 18 months ago, We Live in Time quickly became one of my most anticipated films of 2024. With Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh as romantic leads, a tear-jerking plot, and the A24 logo, it had all the elements I love. However, after watching, I fear my expectations were too high, and the film didn’t meet them.
We Live in Time traces the decade-long relationship between Tobias, an IT specialist at Weetabix, and Almut, a talented chef and restaurant owner, following them from their first meeting and romance to the tragic end of Almut’s life. The basic premise isn’t terribly intriguing. What sets We Live in Time apart, for better or worse, is its story structure – we follow three plots of their relationship throughout the film. The first begins with their initial meeting (Almut actually hits Tobias with her car) and follows the start of their romance through Almut’s cancer diagnosis and their eventual struggle to conceive. The second plot is the night Almut gives birth to their daughter, Ella. The third is years later as the family discovers Almut’s cancer has returned, and she must decide to undergo treatment again or attempt to make the most out of her remaining time.
There was a lot to enjoy about the film. I was particularly wowed by Pugh’s performance as the strong-willed Almut, who was such a well-written and developed character that I wished the story surrounding her was better. Pugh is truly one of the greats working today, and this role is her best to date, bar none. Garfield also delivered, but as a character, Tobias was much less developed than his partner. Some genuinely hilarious moments had my theater laughing out loud, like the desperate search Tobias goes through for a working pen to sign his divorce papers, which ends with him underneath the tires of Almut’s car. I also cried a few times, especially toward the film’s end. One of my favorite scenes in cinema this year was when Almut gives birth to their daughter in a gas station bathroom – it was brilliantly acted, striking the perfect balance between humor and authenticity.
But We Live in Time’s flaws outweigh its positives. I found the plot’s nonlinear structure to be genuinely puzzling. Normally, I find nontraditional formats dynamic and exciting, but in this film, the shifts between the three plotlines disrupted the pacing and felt more like a way to mask that the story itself isn’t particularly compelling.
Because, really, it isn’t that interesting. To compensate for this, the script tries too hard to insert drama and sentimentality where it wasn’t needed. In one pivotal scene, Almut reveals to Tobias that she had formerly been an amazing figure skater but gave it up when her father died, and she couldn’t bring herself to skate without him watching. I actually rolled my eyes during the entire scene; it’s melodramatic in a way that gets underneath my skin. Of course, Almut has a tragic backstory as to why she doesn’t figure skate anymore. Why wouldn’t she? The entire exchange is a set-up for a clunky visual metaphor toward the end of the film when Almut and Tobias take Ella figure skating, and Almut skates away from them, representing her death. It all feels so manufactured.
Ultimately, the film tries too hard to be sad. And it is sad (again, I cried a few times), but there were moments when I felt that it was almost emotionally manipulative in its attempt to get waterworks out of its audience. A24 handed out branded tissue packets at its private screenings for the film, and that sums up a significant part of my issue with the movie; it feels like the point is simply to make the audience sad. There’s no deeper meaning or theme. When it ended, I found myself wondering what the point was. What is the film trying to say? I’m still not totally sure.
The script was also surprisingly middling in a lot of spots. In one of the first scenes, Almut and Tobias are meeting with her doctor, where she discovers her ovarian cancer has returned. (This is in the third plotline.) While discussing their options, Almut’s doctor offers her antibiotics “for the pain.” What? That’s not what antibiotics are for! They’re not painkillers! In an early scene from the beginning of their relationship, Almut breaks things off with Tobias because he wants kids and she doesn’t. Barely 10 minutes later, she suddenly wants children so badly that she rejects having her ovaries removed for the chance of having them, and then they’re doing fertility treatments to get pregnant. There was no buildup to explain why she changed her mind. Within just a few scenes, she went from staunchly childfree (as in, she broke up with her last relationship before Tobias because her partner wanted kids) to be desperate to get pregnant. The characterization was all over the place in so many ways.
We Live in Time should’ve been right up my alley, so I’m disappointed that it was more of a miss than a hit. For the performances alone, it’s worth the cost of admission, but I was hoping for more than a clunky melodrama carried by its actors.