There’s a moment about 30 minutes into We Live in Time where the title is plainly laid out, as Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s characters seemingly have their first fight as a new couple. It feels like one of those “Live. Laugh. Love.” throw pillows with a message that basically boils down to “Live in the now, it’s all you have.”
Thankfully, there is about 90 more minutes at the disposal for Garfield and Pugh under some inspired direction from John Crowley, leaving no meat on the bone in the end in a movie that is filled with some truly awe-inspiring moments.
The sincerest compliment it deserves lies with the two leads. Even in that seemingly reductive, cliche moment, Pugh and Garfield are in prime form, perfectly in-sync with their scene partner.
Garfield (reuniting with his film debut, Boy A’s director after nearly two decades) has certainly made his mark throughout the years with Silence and Hacksaw Ridge among others, but for my money, he hasn’t hit that peak he found in The Social Network back in 2010. But here, with the right script in his hands, is able to tap into the betrayal and pain that made Uardo Saverin so iconic (all but the F-you flip-flops here.)
But it’s hardly his bursts of frustration that make Garfield as sensation- though it certainly makes good Oscar reel material. It’s both the slow and the funny moments as a grieving boyfriend/fiance that linger and drive most of the movie. And for a movie about a character with terminal cancer, it Crowley and writer Nick Payne know how to draw laughs to run the gamut of life with the central couple.
And the other half of it all, Pugh continues to show why her star is only rising in Hollywood. Like Garfield, it’s scenes of frustration that feel show-y, but it’s her moments of joy and compassion that speak the loudest (with a special shoutout to both Pugh and Garfield in a birthing scene for the ages.) And it’s in those gentler moments that they hopefully strike the strongest emotions in the audience, even more than when she fades away, as Crowley never seems to lean into cliche to get the tissues out.
It’s a movie where the trailer tells you just about everything that happens in their simplest form. And that is actually an endorsement of it. You know exactly what is going to happen, but it’s still fresh, finding ways to build on the core thesis of the title.
The use of a mixed chronology rarely works on film, but here, it feels absolutely mandatory. It probably doesn’t work without that, so it’s a massive credit to editor Justine Wright along with composer Bryce Dessner for creating such fluid momentum in what could otherwise be a failed gimmick. Jumping into the story of Almut and Tobias’ life together creates immediate momentum, and once again, brings the success of the movie back to the hands of Garfield and Pugh, capable of creating tension and passion before their characters are full formed.
There’s really no shortage of stunning moments here, making for a spectacular montage of life.
