The Beauty & Sentiment Win Out

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2013)

For me, there is no getting around the fact that it just feels wrong for Rachel McAdams to be in a film so undeniably similar to her previous film The Time Traveler's Wife. That just is what it is.
However, even though it feels a bit derivative in plot and pushes the bounds of even time-travel logic here and there, this film gets at least a 7.5-8.0 rating from me on the strength of the story that is being told, and what a purely beautiful takeaway it gives.
It is not really about time travel. It is about relationships, but not in a saccharine, run-of-the-mill way. McAdams is unbelievably cute of course, but Domhnall Gleeson is absolutely brilliant as the lead character and the entire cast is superb.
I wont' drone on...About Time is one of the sweetest, mostly beautiful, most inspiring films that I have seen in a long time. It does not take its high-concept premise too seriously (which is a good thing) but it takes the characters and their humanity and their connections to each other very seriously ( which is to say that it has real emotional weight - also a very good thing). Better than it looks like it will be from a distance, just tearfully gorgeous up close, and thus it gets my recommendation.