Earnestness is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of both star actors from Director John Crowley’s latest film, ‘We Live in Time‘. Andrew Garfield most recently found himself with an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the musical ‘Tick, tick… BOOM!‘ based on the musical of the same name. And Florence Pugh shone Greta Gerwig’s rendition of ‘Little Women’.

While these vehicles did earn critical success they are not the high brow, snooty, art house projects that many actors favor. They are treacly delights, that play both for critics and audiences, so it makes sense that both actors found themselves returning to that same sort of well to see what they could draw up.

And in many aspects it feels like they are exactly made for the kind of movie that ‘We Live in Time‘ wants to be. They are by far the most exciting part of the film, with each actor rising to the occasion, giving themselves over to the movie, and to the performances they have to pull off. The earnestness shines through in both of them, and without these two performers I’m not confident this movie works at all. It is worth seeing if only for the two of them.

The things that I rub up against are more structural than anything. ‘We Live in Time‘ attempts to reinvent the wheel by jumping around the relationship, showing Florence’s character Almut getting her second cancer diagnosis, to Andrew Garfield getting his neck shaved to get ready for his first big interview. The time jumping robs us from the stakes of the action as it happens. I can understand that the filmmakers knew what kind of movie they were making, and that maybe we would be able to suss out the major plot points regardless of the time jumping. But it did not work out the way they would hope.

Instead we feel robbed of the unwrapping winding road of a new relationship. The journey of falling in love, getting into a fight, breaking up, and apologizing does lose it’s luster if thirty seconds ago we saw them hand in hand holding their first child. It’s a shame too, because while the general plot of the film is fairly run of the mill, there are small moments that feel staggeringly brilliant. The moment that stands out to me is when Almut is getting her second cancer diagnosis, and the treatment plan is being revealed her stomach growls. Loudly. The doctor takes a beat, smiles, and hands her and Tobias each some candy. It felt real and lived in that a way movies often fail to capture.

Then the best scene of the film takes place when the couple is on their way back from the hospital, having gotten there too early to deliver their child and were sent home. Stopping at a gas station, Almut goes into the restroom and the baby decides that it’s time for the magic to happen. This blend of comedy, and sweetness, particularly from the employees of the gas station as they attempt to help the stranger giving birth in the public restroom is exactly the kind of treacly goodness I want from Garfield and Pugh when they do work like this.

The more dramatic aspects of the film are the ones that work the least. Mostly because we’ve seen cancer drama awards bait time and time again. The chopping up of the timeline is not enough to make ‘Time‘ rise above the other cancer dramas. It actually works against the parts of the film that work. It’s a shame because both actors are giving it their all. We can only hope that in time we’ll see them take another swing like this again, but with better results.

3/5