To round off fresher’s week this year, I ventured out to the renowned New Picture House cinema in St Andrews for the first time to watch the latest Richard Curtis movie, About Time. I’d been told to expect great things from this film, which tells the story of Tim, (Domhnall Gleeson) ((pretty much a young Hugh Grant)) and his quest for love, with the added twist of time travel. As a massive Richard Curtis fan my expectations were high and I was far from disappointed with his latest masterpiece, in part owing to the terrific soundtrack.
Despite not offering much in the variety of contemporary music, the album features some of the finest in British pop with everything from Amy Winehouse and The Cure to The Sugababes. There is a questionably outdated appearance from Ben Folds with a revised version of ‘The Lukiest’, a gentle piano track, which I found to be fairly generic but adequate as background music. My favourite song to be featured in the film was ‘How long will I love you’ which appears in two versions on the soundtrack, with an upbeat folk/acoustic cover from Jon Boden, Sam Sweeney & Ben Coleman, and a subdued cover from Ellie Goulding, that will no doubt go on to have chart success. The obligatory wedding scene is improved by the surprising addition of Jimmy Fontana’s Il Mondo, which is unexpectedly touching and pertinent.
I’d give the album a respectable 3 stars out of 5, and highly recommend it to mutual fans of the Love Actually soundtrack.
Check out the Ellie Goulding version here.