Rom com with charm, visual splendour and various flaws

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2014)

Richard Cutis rolls out another sentimental, charming and brilliantly British rom com with About Time. This time, it's boy meets girl. Boy can travel in time. A romantic comedy with a time travel twist, AT has various shortcomings but is overall pleasant and reasonably well done. Richard Curtis writes and directs the film, and he shows his skill as a director as the visuals are excellent. The script has other issues, but much of the drama feels real and the jokes and funny without resorting to vulgarity. The humour's fairly original and you can't see all of the jokes coming. Things are repeated thanks to the involvement of time travel but it doesn't grow repetitive. This is a sentimental film but not in an overly cloying way and some of the dramatic moments are genuinely emotional, but in a calm, unforced sort of way. The acting is good all around, but the standout is Bill Nighy as the father, who's performance sparkles with both pathos and dry wit. AT is a touching and funny film overall, but it has several problems which become more apparent in the second half.
While the sentimentality is fine, it's inevitably a bit soppy. The problem with AT is that there's not a lot of point. Once the central relationship gets going there's no conflict or threat, and instead the film goes into other underdeveloped subplots. The film drifts from event to event without actually saying much or offering any obstacles to the characters, and leaves various plot holes in its wake. AT has some rather problematic messages, and the implication that the main character could not have had his successes or his romances without the time travel is a bit offensive. A lot of the time, you can't quite see where it's going. AT certainly lacks urgency or true conflict, but it's well executed and enjoyable enough for that to be overlooked and all in all it's another triumph for Working Title. Many will enjoy this and it might even be a tear jerking movie for some. It hasn't got an awful lot of logic to it but it doesn't necessarily need it. It's no Back To The Future, but it does time travel in an interesting and less formulaic way than other time travel films.
7/10