Good but not great

Rating: 7/10 (3 December 2018)

There was a lot going on in this film that I did like. I enjoyed the vfx in the beginning that added to the narration. There were also a lot of interesting shot choices towards the beginning but also at the end especially one shot as it approaches the bed in the end, with the pink lighting was amazing. The film was also enjoyably meta and somehow set not quite in modern times which was enjoyable too.
As other reviewers pointed out, it could have been quite philosophical in nature and/or explore a deeper love story that would have strayed from the usual boy meets girl. This part seems like an edit that was forced by the studio execs rather than what the writer would have wanted. Is the message really supposed to be that love trumps all? Being so prevalent in movies it gets lost in the bucket of cliches that we all have grown to hate.
The flirting with Anna was really organic and some of the dialogue in the movie was really well written. I had to think of the old parable " if you met mr right, he would run away" and it was satisfying that neither of the characters initially liked each other but grew warmer, culminating in a night of love with flours (good pun) and guitar ballads (a nice tying of the guitar plotline).
What lacked was finally that it was set up in such a way that led you to believe that the watch (which was a great character btw) caused Harold to save the kids life, when it should have been the change in personality through the hero journey. The way the movie is set up however, it is not clear that at the start of the movie the character would have acted differently and there is no real connection of his action of saving the child, to anything he had learnt during the story.
If youre expecting a comedy, you shouldnt be, watch it for a nice rom(com(but not really)) and somewhat drama.