A tiny miracle of a film that's about so much more than time.

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2014)

Richard Curtis has been responsible - as a writer, director or both at once - for such beloved romantic comedies as Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually. It would seem to make perfect sense, then, for his newest film to be marketed in the same way: About Time, the new Richard Curtis rom-com featuring time travel! Never judge a film by its trailer or poster, though, as the saying goes, because there's an almost startling, heartbreaking depth to About Time, which slowly reveals itself to be a story about family and love that's only concerned in part with romance.
On his 21st birthday, awkward, gangly Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) is told by his dad (Bill Nighy) that the men in his family have a unique ability to travel in time: they can't kill Hitler or take a tour of Renaissance Europe but, by going into a dark space and clenching their fists, they can revisit moments in their own personal timelines. When Tim meets the sweet, beautiful Mary (Rachel McAdams), he resolves to do everything in his power - including go back in time - to win her heart.
That may sound like a bit of a kooky premise, but Curtis' execution of it - in his dual capacities as writer and director - is completely winning. In the moments when it's very much a rom-com, About Time is deliciously romantic and sweetly hilarious. There's an effervescent joy to Tim meeting Mary for the first time (again), just as the ways in which they fall - and stay - in love are close to magical. Curtis' films have always used music to great effect, and here he peppers the love story with songs that will move into your heart and stay there, like Ben Folds' The Luckiest and The Waterboys' How Long Will I Love You.
But About Time isn't just about a boy and a girl finding each other: it's also about what happens after that, when romance leads to a lifetime spent together, making memories and becoming a family. Tim discovers, to his horror, that his gift cannot shield him from all the low points in life: when he starts having more to lose, the costs of doubling back on his own timeline grow ever larger. It's a point made very effectively when Tim tries to save his beautifully quirky sister Kit-Kat (Lydia Wilson) from the heartbreak and horror that has derailed her life.
In many ways, this is Curtis' most personal film: it folds in life lessons and insights about death, loss, family, and treasuring what's extraordinary in even the most ordinary of lives. He seems to suggest that Tim's gift is more of a choice: it can be used in the flashiest of ways, unravelling lives and histories in the clench of a fist, or it can be used to savour all the little things that we take for granted, all the moments that slip by in the rush and bustle of a busy day. Tim's romance with Mary might be the selling point of the film, but it's really his tender, emotional relationship with his dad that will stay with audience members long after the credits roll.
If there's anything that doesn't quite work, it's Curtis' deceptively simple notion of time travel. Tim's gift is more plot device than plot point, but it still raises more than a few questions along the way. Does Tim have to re-live his entire life whenever he goes back in time? Why are only the men of the family given this odd, marvellous gift? Isn't there something faintly worrying about men who can completely control the shape and nature of their relationships with the ladies in their lives? About Time breezes swiftly past these concerns, but they lurk disquietingly within the film anyway.
Curtis' cast is an unmitigated marvel. Gleeson is a sweetheart, his bumbling warmth adding greatly to Tim's gentle appeal. McAdams shines brightly in a slightly undercooked role, leaving no room for doubt that men would brave the vagaries of time travel for a chance to see her smile. (It's fortunate that her second foray into time-crossed romance is so much more successful than the lamentable The Time Traveller's Wife.) Nighy, meanwhile, all long limbs and rumpled charm, is heartbreakingly lovely as Tim's dad: the father who patiently teaches his son about everything that matters in life and love.
A few months ago, Curtis announced his plans to retire as a director after About Time - this would allow him, he said, to take properly to heart the film's message about consciously choosing to enjoy one's life in all its quiet splendour. For fans of Curtis, it's not a complete loss, as he plans to focus on writing and producing and has, in any case, directed only three films in his career. But, on the strengths of the sweetly devastating, unexpectedly accomplished About Time, it's hard not to feel at least a small sense of loss in imagining what might otherwise have been.