Garfield and Pugh Elevate Familiar Cancer Drama We Live in Time to Magnetic Heights
There are only so many places a “power of love to overcome all obstacles” cancer melodrama can go. The question isn’t so much how the story will end but instead how authentically and honestly it reaches its more or less forgone conclusion. Do we care about the characters? Is their relationship pure? Are the tears genuine? Those are the items I tend to think about when it comes to these types of narratives, and all were on my mind as I watched We Live in Time build to its climax.
Directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn) and written by playwright Nick Payne (The Last Letter from Your Lover), this film is a nonlinear romance that begins with its two attractive protagonists, marketing executive Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and award-winning chef Almut (Florence Pugh), receiving devastating news: her ovarian cancer has returned. From there the film flashes through various points of their relationship. Their meet-cute when she accidentally hits him with her car while he’s on a distracted walk. Their blossoming romantic attachment. Discussions regarding children. Their first real fight. The couple’s initial battle against cancer. The birth of their daughter Ella (Grace Delaney).
All of this is handled reasonably well. Crowley is an imaginative and confident filmmaker, and his fearlessness in tackling a byzantine narrative structures is plainly evident. The time jumps rarely come across as forced, and I never lost track of where I was on the continuum of Tobias and Almut’s relationship. But this structure does have the unintended side effect of somewhat lessening the inherent dramatic power of the core threat they are attempting to overcome. The emotional magnitude of it all never was what I kept hoping it was going to be.
That said, Garfield and Pugh couldn’t be better. They inject so much life into their performances, and their sizzling chemistry burns through the screen from the second they share their first lines of dialogue. The actors slip into these characters with ease (especially Pugh, and for anyone who watched and adored any of the cooking videos she released on social media throughout the pandemic it’s difficult not to think portraying Almut was a dream come true), so much so I almost forgot I was looking at two of the planet’s biggest movie stars.
It’s good that this is so because there are times that Payne’s unfortunately stilted dialogue doesn’t give the pair much to work with. But Garfield and Pugh have a wondrous ability to make even the most melodramatically silly bits of exposition or schlocky drivel come across as universally relatable and intimately intuitive humanist observations. Additionally, they are superb silent actors, so when Crowley strips the audio down to its most minimalist decibels, these actors convey oceans of emotive content with only the simplest of physical accouterments to aid them.
The central conflict involves whether or not Almut should vigorously attack the cancer this second go-around. Those conversations go about how you would expect them to, and it is the presence of Ella that swings things towards shaving one’s head and going through multiple rounds of chemotherapy. But the twist is that Almut also has the chance to compete in an elite competition for the world’s best chefs, and she’s worried if she does not step up to the plate now, thanks to the cancer she will not get a second opportunity.
Fine. Nothing wrong with that. There’s plenty of room for drama with that as a subplot. The issue is how Almut and Tobias communicate —or, to be clear, don’t communicate — their thoughts on this matter. It’s one thing for the pair to keep secrets, as goodness knows people are complicated, and battling cancer is an ordeal no one truly understands unless they’ve personally dealt with it. But it just isn’t believable that this massive falsehood could be maintained as long as it is. I didn’t buy it.
But thankfully there is so much more to like here, moments of such purity and beauty the tears can’t help but naturally appear as if out of nowhere. Editor Justine Wright (Locke) cuts the film with nimble dexterity, giving things an operatic grace that’s otherworldly. I also found Stuart Bentley’s lushly colorful cinematography to be particularly noteworthy, the picturesque luminosity of how they manage to cycle back and forth through time having a mesmerizing elegance that suits the material perfectly.
In the end, even if some of the dramatic pieces fail to connect, Garfield and Pugh’s performances are so stirringly excellent that they make the film matter even with its frustrating shortcomings. While the technical facets are strong and Crowley’s direction is dynamic, We Live in Time works as well as it does entirely thanks to these two actors. This is undeniably a showcase for Garfield and Pugh’s seemingly unlimited talents. On that front, they, and by extension the film, do not disappoint.
Film Rating: 3 (out of 4)
