About Time

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2013)

The problem with About Time, is that it is not particularly a bad film, but at the same time it is not really a good one either. The film is purely and simply mediocre. The premise of the film sounded interesting enough with it's blend of romance/comedy and even a little bit of science fiction (if you really want to call it that), but I just felt that the film went nowhere with this material. In the right hands a story idea like this could have really been something wonderful if it was in the hands of say, Charlie Kaufman, or someone like that, but here the material loses steam and interest fast and I didn't feel the film used this interesting premise in any interesting ways. Events happen in the film where there is some sort of mishap, or embarrassment and so henceforth we go to the science fiction aspect of the film and changing the outcomes of many situations, but the problem is that the film used this plot device and gimmick too many times and it just never went anywhere and after awhile it never really seemed fresh, or original, but instead a film that has just one too many clichés and plot holes and it really did not feel like anything new, or breakthrough, but instead just a rehash of films that I have seen so many times before. I appreciated that writer/director Richard Curtis, tried to make us connect with these characters on the screen and giving us moments of which to laugh and cry, but again none of it really registered, or connected with me personally. I might have had a few laughs during the course of the film and at times it did hold my interest, but I just overall was not all that interested in how this film would end, or what would happen to these characters and the plot device/gimmick that was introduced into the story. At times the film almost felt a little emotionless as well. Things just seemed to drag on and it was never really all that interesting and at times, I do admit some of the emotion, or things going on, did feel a bit forced and the true emotional build up, or allowing us to care, or connect with these characters was never there. I have seen other Richard Curtis films before which I have liked, which was one of the reasons I chose to see About Time, but this I feel is one of his most underdeveloped films from a writing perspective because of how we never can connect to any one person, or event and just that none of it is all that interesting. I was hoping that like Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry's wonderful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which did have a unique and original plot device and gimmick, but that film made us care and relate to the characters and situations more so than most films I have seen and was a film that always was fascinating and kept your interest and because of how personal and realistic it got, you could both identify with it and laugh and cry with it at the same time. The plot device there was not underused, but used in the right way and it ended up being one of the best films of the 2000's and one of the best films around period. I was hoping that writer/director Richard Curtis would have taken the same route with About Time, but unfortunately the end result was too flat. This isn't also to say that I hated About Time, because I didn't. There were times where I appreciated some of the humour in it and when the emotional content did not feel too forced, I felt that I did connect with it in some ways, but unfortunately those moments were too few and far between. I didn't like the film and I didn't hate it. I think that it is going to be one of those films which I will probably remember for a couple days and then as time goes by, I will forget most of what I saw on screen because it did not resonate, or connect with me as I wished it would have. I still like Richard Curtis and I would recommend viewers a lot of his other films whether written, or directed by him, like Love Actually, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, or my personal favourite, the made for television movie The Girl in the Café. All worth checking out. I wish he would have repeated some of the successful material in those films for About Time, but as it stands About Time, is neither good, or bad, but simply mediocre and nothing more.