‘We Live In Time’ Review – Florence Pugh And Andrew Garfield Dazzle In A New Romance Classic [TIFF 2024]

Romance films live and die by the chemistry of their central couple.

In many cases, seeing two characters (and, by extension, two actors) fall in love and tug at our well-worn heartstrings is worth the price of admission. It is central to the romantic movie contract between the film and the audience. We forgive filmmakers the most ridiculous, saccharine, implausible, and derivative scenarios for the promise of dazzling chemistry and romance. What are we doing here if a film can’t deliver that?

At first blush, We Live in Time is a collection of all those circumstances written into the contract. The film follows the love story of Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh), a young couple who fall in love after a chance encounter: Almut running Tobias over with her car. The two’s hospital meet-cute quickly develops into a charming push-and-pull romance between Tobias’s sweeping gestures and Almut’s take-no-prisoners approach to her life and career. We see their relationship over the years: their first date, their first big fight over having kids (where Tobias also admits he loves Almut), their reunion, their struggles to conceive, the birth of their daughter, and Almut’s diagnosis and subsequent battles with cancer. 

You can start linking We Live in Time to other entrants in the canon just from the above. It quickly brings to mind the hazardous first meeting of The Wedding Planner, the personality clashes of The Way We Were, and the heartbreaking malady of Love Story, to name a few. Not that the tropes are disqualifying (again, the contract), but you do wonder how much innovation lies within so many at once. Director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne shake up the formulas by playing with the chronology of Tobias and Almut’s relationship. Rather than meeting them at the beginning, we meet them as they learn about Almut’s cancer recurrence. At that point, Almut and Tobias are well into their lives and happy together, so we know their relationship survives the early trials and tribulations. And so, we have a structural wrinkle: if everything will eventually work itself out, at least until that point, where is the dramatic tension? Or rather, why bother with the flashbacks at all?

The flashbacks offer valuable dimensions to Tobias and Almut’s present-day circumstances. Refreshingly, there are no shocking revelations or contrivances buried in the couple’s past that change how we perceive the story. There are no stabs at misdirection, either (another well-worn romance film trope). Through the flashbacks, Crowley digs deep into who Tobias and Almut were, how they’ve grown and evolved, and how it informs their choices. Almut’s decision to work through her treatments is closely linked to fear that her talents will be lost. Keeping it from Tobias is a response to his anxious overplanning. Meanwhile, Tobias’s anxiety stems from his divorce and being caught out of step because of his vulnerability. Our travels through Tobias and Almut’s past help paint colorful portraits of them, as rich and compelling as the best films in the genre. It keeps the flashbacks from feeling like laborious homework.

It also helps that Tobias and Almut’s past and present experiences are wonderful to watch. For a film ostensibly about a married couple navigating the difficulties of ill health, We Live in Time is very, very funny. Crowley navigates a tricky balance of levity and pathos that doesn’t feel false, awkward (structurally; Almut and Tobias are a charmingly awkward pair), or exploitative. He will have Tobias and Almut struggling through conceiving their first child in one scene, and then have Almut giving birth in a gas station bathroom after running through stopped traffic because she needs to urinate. The circumstances are utterly absurd and entertaining, made even better by knowing how much it ultimately means in their relationship’s larger context.  

We Live in Time is strong from narrative and structural standpoints, but it would fall apart if we didn’t believe in the couple or, specifically, the actors playing them. Having Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh – frequently cited among the industry’s best – play the couple is an embarrassment of riches on paper. In practice, they are splendid. They both have a strong handle on the film’s awkward, humorous rhythms and its sweeping, blissful approach to romance. They have excellent chemistry together and work brilliantly within and against each other’s ranges. For Garfield, that’s teary-eyed anguish and quiet, flabbergasted surprise, and for Pugh, it’s her unflappable resolve that gives way to piercing pain. No matter the scene or tone, they move in lockstep, as if they’ve been working together for years. It’s tempting to immediately request another film from them, but you can’t help but wonder if Crowley has caught lightning in a bottle.

If We Live in Time is meant to be a one-off for Garfield and Pugh, it is a lovely, wondrous one. The film is a near-perfect union of actors, script, and direction that fits within the romance genre’s pillars while still finding ways to surprise and delight. The film doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, even with its nontraditional chronological structure. However, it does just enough to begin carving itself into the annals of the all-time great romance movies.

We Live In Time held its World Premiere as part of the Special Presentations section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film will debut exclusively in theaters on October 11, 2024, courtesy of A24. 

Director: John Crowley

Writer: Nick Payne

Rated: R

Runtime: 107m