A unique and beautiful story about life. Simply magical!

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2014)

I thought the trailers for this film looked pretty good. The cast was good, the concept seemed great and I thought it looked like a very unique indie love story. I was right but I also understated it in my mind. This film was brilliant. Magical. Sweet. Touching and emotional. I loved every minute of it. I laughed and cried and just have been thinking about the film ever since...a surefire sign of a great movie. It is deep and important and has such a beautiful message about life and love. Some harsher reviewers call it unrealistic and a close minded vision of the world and perhaps it is a little neat and tidy but some people live neat and tidy lives and it doesn't do anything to take away from the fact that nearly anyone can find a message here to apply to their own life. It is about seeing the beauty around you. Its the fact that this man can essentially change anything in his life but learns that true beauty is the way the world unfolds as it is. It gives me chills just writing that. This very well may have and should have made my best of 2013 list and I liked it enough that I just may amend my already posted list because this truly moved me.
Domhnall Gleeson is just about perfect as the bumbling, adorable everyman Tim. He is just someone you can relate to. He feels real. He isn't a chiseled, square jawed Hollywood superstar and he gives this truly moving, intense, emotional performance that feels right. It isn't an in your face obvious performance but a subtle role that grows on you. The amazing Rachel McAdams is the love of his life and they are stunning together. McAdams seems to have this chemistry with the men in her films (most of them) that is compelling and riveting and passionate. McAdams and Gleeson on the surface may seem like an odd couple and yet that are a match made in heaven to watch. Like Gleeson's performance McAdams and their relationship feels genuine and real. It is a little fairy tale-esque but so what. We all need a little fairy tale romance in our lives. Bill Nighy is brilliant...'nuff said. Honestly, this guy is just charismatic and stunning and you immediately connect with him and fall in love with him as Tim's doting father. Is he the personification of the perfect father? Yes. Again...so what. We don't watch films for reality. I suspected and knew that death would play a part in Nighy's character and there were scenes prior to that where I was almost crying thinking about Tim losing him. He is enigmatic in this role. Lydia Wilson is good as Tim's beloved and extremely quirky sister. Its sort of an odd role that doesn't quite fit in the film and yet she doesn't quite fit in her family so it makes some sort of sense in the grand scheme of things. She still adds a level of fun to the cast and she's good. Lindsay Duncan, Richard Cordery and Joshua McGuire are decent in very small supporting roles.
I am genuinely shocked that director Richard Curtis has so few credits to his name as director. That being said Love Actually is considered a modern day Holiday classic (I have yet to see it) and Pirate Radio is also considered great by some. He is a terrific writer having penned some truly outstanding work but he clearly has a handle on his own screenplay here. The cinematography behind this love story is lovely in its own right. The British scenery is serene and beautiful. The film is quirky and funny and awkward and then beautiful and emotional and just deep if you really inspect it. There were so few errors in the film though I think you'll find, as I did, that you'll be asking yourself a few key questions like why he and his father never tell anyone...especially the women they adore so much. The addition of transporting another person in time was rather unexplained and perhaps unnecessary? But I'm grasping at negative straws because I have to go with my gut and how much I enjoyed this. I thought the pacing was perfect and it was just a wonderful romance about love and life. I am forever enamoured with About Time. 9/10