On paper, We Dwell in Time appears thoughtfully formulated to be the proper tearjerker for as we speak. John Crowley, the celebrated helmer of the beautiful Saoirse Ronan romance Brooklyn, groups with heralded actors/web darlings Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield in a weepy romance of wooing and tragic loss. And but, whereas peppered with intercourse scenes and adoring close-ups, this isn’t a sizzling and even sweaty embrace of lust and love, however a soggy handshake of a movie that underwhelms regardless of its star energy.
It’s stunning how We Dwell in Time had the items that ought to’ve been the stuff of Oscar acclaim and viewers adoration. However regardless of bringing collectively two of the most popular younger actors at present working, Crowley’s film is astonishingly middling, set aside from forgettable fare solely by a time-skipping gadget that feels inexplicable at finest and irritating at worst.
We Dwell in Time‘s plotting gimmick doesn’t work.
We Dwell in Time begins with a pair already so effectively established that they’ve a comfy morning routine. Formidable chef Almut (Pugh) goes on an extended picturesque run by way of a beautiful forest, foraging substances alongside the way in which to make use of in her subsequent culinary experiment. She returns house to a stunning cottage and will get to work in her fairly kitchen, whereas her loving husband Tobias (Garfield) remains to be sleeping comfortably of their mattress.
No sooner is their bliss established over a breakfast in mattress than the film leaps again to earlier than they met, when he was only a unhappy sack on the point of divorce along with his first spouse. There’s thrilling chemistry following a literal automotive crash of a meet-cute, with Pugh’s signature attraction sparking towards Garfield’s unflappable wholesomeness. Different moments, like their a lot memed trip on a merry-go-round, are winsome. However they’re tossed into this movie with little regard to pacing or theme or any form of obvious logic.
Regardless of the flashes again and ahead, their story is simple, the stuff of weepy seashore reads. They fall in love whereas she is constructing her first restaurant, and he’s coping with the top of his first marriage. They practically break up realizing they’ve totally different expectations round youngsters. However they are going to overcome these points, as they are going to her first battle with most cancers and its brutal chemo remedies. The principle plot of the movie takes place as soon as they’ve had their daughter and are confronted with the recurrence of the most cancers, extra aggressive than earlier than. The query turns into, will Almut endure one other spherical of body-wilting chemo that won’t even save her life? Or will she reject remedy to benefit from the time she has left?
The second most cancers battle alone may have made an fascinating film. However as a result of this screenplay goals to loop back-and-forth to indicate the breath of their complete relationship,We Dwell in Time feels extra like postcards of a relationship than a portrait that’s fleshed out or remotely fascinating. There’s so little sense of cohesion from sequence to sequence, it’s exhausting to get emotionally invested in these characters, even in the event you’re somebody who has been a fan of the actors, as I’m.
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Florence Pugh shines. Andrew Garfield is stranded.
That is the form of position that appears good for Florence Pugh, as it’s a lady who’s coping with conflicting feelings that demand she smile and frown with equal ardour. Almut loves her husband and her little one, but in addition desires to be extra than simply “somebody’s dying mum.” So when a possibility to compete in a high-level cooking competitors arises, she will be able to’t carry herself to show it down, even when it means pushing her physique to its limits and spending much less time at house.
Once more, this may’ve made a compelling story by itself. However We Dwell in Time goals to create some form of steadiness by additionally following Tobias, who has a lot much less to do. The place Almut is established as having needs exterior of her marriage, her husband exists solely to mope when she disappoints him. He’s simply Ken, an adjunct to hold on her like an anchor. Which is wild as a result of Tobias’s arguments within the movie — for honesty of their marriage and for trying a brand new spherical of chemo — are legitimate, but undermined by a plotting that treats him as a clingy impediment to Almut’s skilled goals.
Whereas Garfield delivers a soulful efficiency with huge watery eyes, the scattered construction of the movie offers him little to construct on. Tobias is so thinly realized that the viewers is left to fill within the gaps, maybe with prior appreciation for Garfield or a common affection for Nicholas Sparks–fashion romances the place the besotted lovers are doomed to be separated by loss of life. In both case, the movie by itself is frustratingly fractured.
Crowley fails to raise a lackluster script.
To be clear, We Dwell in Time isn’t the worst film of the yr. That’d be the repulsive and abysmal relaunch of The Crow. It’s not the largest bomb of the yr, which appears to be Eli Roth’s messy adaptation of Borderlands. It’s not even a film arguably enhanced by some form of scandal, like Pugh’s Don’t Fear Darling or 2024’s different latest weepy It Ends With Us. In actual fact, We Dwell in Time will doubtless be bolstered by the unimaginable chemistry its stars are sharing on pink carpets and cheeky promotional interviews. However by itself, this film is much lower than the sum of its elements.
The most cancers story may have been sufficient to maintain it. Maybe with flashbacks to bolster our understanding not solely of this {couples}’ love but in addition the hardships they’ve traversed earlier than. It may have been a carefully balanced story from each views, exploring how generally even the selection of life or loss of life is achingly difficult. However Crowley’s execution of Nick Payne’s woe-infested scribblings of a screenplay manages neither. The time jumps really feel like artless novelty, trying to distract from how threadbare this story really is — notably Almut’s first spherical of most cancers, which makes up three quick scenes.
Whereas Pugh and Garfield give their all to Almut and Tobias, the chaotic smattering of scenes supplies no construct in emotional stress. In actual fact, leaping from the couple already collectively to not having met undercuts scenes of nervous flirtation with inevitability. It’s like for all the things that may work on this movie, there’s one thing else that works towards it. Sequences like their first dialog in a hospital hallway and a beginning sequence wildly alive with power provide moments of hope that Crowley and firm will lower their method by way of the messy plot gadget of time-skipping to hook into one thing unshakably profound.
However ultimately, We Dwell in Time is profoundly mediocre, missing the verve, sexiness, and uncooked human emotion we’ve come to anticipate from Pugh and Garfield.
We Dwell in Time was reviewed out of its world premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition. The film will open in theaters within the U.S. on Oct. 11.