''About Time'' is a 2013 romantic

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film written and directed by

Richard Curtis Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known for romantic comedy-drama films, including ''Four Weddings and a Funeral' ...

, and starring

Domhnall Gleeson Domhnall Gleeson (; born 12 May 1983) is an Irish actor and screenwriter. The son of actor Brendan Gleeson, he studied media arts at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He began his career by directing and writing several short films, and garne ...

Rachel McAdams Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from York University in 2001 with a BFA in theatre, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film '' Perfect Pie'' (2002), ...

, and

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Known for his work in numerous stage, television and film productions, he has received several awards including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, and ...

. The film is about a young man with the ability to

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

who tries to change his past in hopes of improving his future. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2013. The film received mixed reviews from critics. At the box office, it grossed $87.1 million against a $12 million budget. It was dedicated to actor Richard Griffiths, who died a few months before the film's release, marking his final film appearance.

Plot

Tim Lake grows up in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

with his father James, mother Mary, uncle Desmond, and younger sister Katherine ("Kit Kat"). The morning after a less-than-great New Year’s Eve party, James tells Tim that the men of their family can travel back in time to moments they have lived before. Tim tests this by going back to the previous night’s party and changing a few events. When he returns, James discourages him from using his gift to acquire money or fame, and Tim decides to use it to improve his love life. The following summer, Kit Kat's friend Charlotte visits. Although instantly smitten, Tim waits until the last day to tell her; she tells him he should have told her earlier. Tim travels back in time to tell Charlotte in the middle of the holiday, but she suggests he wait until her last day. Heartbroken, he realises that she is uninterested in him and time travel cannot change anyone's mind. Tim moves to London to pursue a career as a lawyer, initially living with his father's acquaintance Harry, a playwright. He visits a Dans le Noir restaurant, where he meets Mary, an American who works for a publisher. They flirt in the darkness, and she gives Tim her phone number. He returns home to a distraught Harry, whose play's opening night has been ruined by an actor forgetting his lines. Tim goes back in time to help the actor so the play is a triumph. However, when Tim tries to call Mary, he discovers that by going back to help Harry, the evening with her never occurred so he does not have her number. Recalling Mary's obsession with

Kate Moss Katherine Ann Moss (born 16 January 1974) is an English model. Arriving towards the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her t ...

, he attends a Kate Moss exhibition every day until he sees Mary. Having never met Tim, she is confused but allows him to join her and her friend. During lunch, he discovers that she now has a boyfriend. Tim goes back to when they met, turning up before the potential boyfriend arrives, and persuades Mary to leave with him. Their relationship develops, and Tim moves in with Mary. One night, he encounters Charlotte, who is now interested in him, but he turns down the invitation of intimacy as he is in love with Mary. Tim returns home and proposes. They marry, and shortly afterwards have a baby daughter, Posy. Kit Kat's relationship and employment struggles lead her to drunkenly crash her car on Posy's first birthday. Tim decides to intervene: he prevents the crash and takes her back to avert a bad relationship. Returning to the present, he finds that Posy has never been born but he has a son instead. James explains that changing events prior to their children's birth may alter the exact child conceived. Tim accepts that he cannot solve his sister's problems by changing her past; he lets the crash happen, ensuring Posy's birth, and he and Mary help Kit Kat face her problems. She settles down with Tim's friend Jay. Tim and Mary have another child, a boy. Tim learns that James has terminal

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

and time travel cannot change it, as going back to remove his smoking would undo his and Kit Kat's conceptions. His father has known his illness would come for some time, and so has been travelling back in time to extend his life and spend more time with his family. He tells Tim to live each day twice to be truly happy: first, with all the everyday tensions and worries, but the second time noticing how sweet the world can be. Tim follows this advice; his father dies, but on the day of the funeral, Tim travels to the past to visit his father. Mary tells Tim that she wants a third child. He is reluctant as he will not be able to visit his father again. Tim tells James, so together they travel back to relive a happy memory from Tim's childhood, taking care not to change the experience to avoid causing changes to the present. Mary gives birth to another girl. Jay and Kit Kat, very happy together, have their first child. The family accepts the loss of James, and Tim realises that it is better to live each day once only. He ultimately decides to not time travel at all and comes to appreciate life with his family as if he is living it for the second time.

Cast

as Tim Lake *

as Mary *

as James Lake * Lydia Wilson as Kit Kat * Lindsay Duncan as Mary Lake * Richard Cordery as Uncle Desmond * Joshua McGuire as Rory *

Tom Hollander Thomas Anthony Hollander (; born 25 August 1967) is a British actor. He trained with National Youth Theatre and won the Ian Charleson Award in 1992 for his performance as Witwoud in ''The Way of the World''. He made his Broadway debut in the ...

as Harry Chapman * Margot Robbie as Charlotte * Will Merrick as Jay *

Vanessa Kirby Vanessa Nuala Kirby (born 18 April 1987 or 1988) is an English actress and producer. She rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Princess Margaret in the Netflix drama series ''The Crown'' (2016–2017), for which she won the Bri ...

as Joanna * Tom Hughes as Jimmy Kincade * Clemmie Dugdale as Ginger Jenny * Harry Hadden-Paton as Rupert * Mitchell Mullen as Mary's Father, Fitz *

Lisa Eichhorn Lisa Eichhorn (born February 4, 1952) is an American actress, writer and producer. She made her film debut in 1979 in the John Schlesinger film ''Yanks'', for which she received two Golden Globe nominations. Her international career has included ...

as Mary's Mother, Jean * Jenny Rainsford as Polly Richard Griffiths and Richard E. Grant make uncredited appearances as lawyer characters in a play, with Griffiths's being his final film role.

Production

By Curtis's own admission the conception of the idea "was a slow growth". The genesis of the idea came when Curtis was eating lunch with a friend and the subject of happiness came up. Upon admitting he was not truly happy in life, the conversation turned towards him describing an ideal day. From here Curtis realised that the day of the lunch, for him, constituted such a day, which led to him deciding to write a film about "how you achieve happiness in ordinary life". Thinking that the concept was too "simple" he decided to add a

element to the film. Although the production contracted out various effect houses to try to make the time-traveling effects feel like more of a spectacle, they found the resulting work "just completely wrong" tonally and instead focused on a more low-key approach. Curtis has opined "that in the end, it turns out to be a kind of anti-time travel movie. It uses all the time travel stuff but without it feeling like it's a science fiction thing particularly or without it feeling that time travel can actually solve your life." Curtis is primarily known as a

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, and ''About Time'' was only his third ever film as a director (plus one television short); he said the film was likely to be his last film as director, but that he will continue in the film industry.

Zooey Deschanel Zooey Claire Deschanel ( ; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She made her film debut in ''Mumford (film), Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known f ...

had been in talks for the role of Mary, but ultimately, the role went to McAdams.

Release

''About Time''s initial release was set for 10 May 2013 but was pushed back to 1 November 2013. It premiered on 8 August 2013 as part of the

Film4 Film4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, dedicated to broadcasting films. The standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesa ...

Summer Screen outdoor cinema series at the historic

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

in London. It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2013. It received a limited US release on 1 November, with a general release on 8 November 2013. The film became a surprise success in South Korea, where it was watched by more than three million people, one of the highest numbers among the foreign romantic comedy films released in Korea. It grossed a total of $23,434,443 there, its highest country total.

Home media

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast. UPHE is the home video distributor for all of the ...

released ''About Time'' on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on February 4, 2014.

Reception

''About Time'' received mixed reviews from critics. On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Beautifully filmed and unabashedly sincere, ''About Time'' finds director Richard Curtis at his most sentimental."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned a score of 55 out of 100, based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Catherine Shoard of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' compared the film to ''

Groundhog Day Groundhog Day (, , , ; Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if ...

'' noting it "is about as close to home as a homage can get without calling in the copyright team" and describes Domhnall Gleeson as a "ginger

Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received List of awards ...

", which "at first, is unnerving; as ''About Time'' marches on, Gleeson's innate charm gleams through and this weird disconnection becomes quite compelling." Shoard gave the film two stars out of five.

Robbie Collin Robbie Collin is a British film critic. Collin studied aesthetics and the philosophy of film at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He edited the university's student newspaper, '' The Saint''. Collin has been the chief film critic at ''The ...

of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' praised the comic timing of McAdams and Gleeson, but criticised the film, comparing it to a quilt, calling it "soft, frayed at the edges, and oh so comfortable" and gives it three stars out of five. Leslie Felperin of '' Variety'' called the film "reassuringly bland" and says there is a sense of

déjà vu ''Déjà vu'' ( , ; "already seen") is the phenomenon of feeling like one has lived through the present situation in the past.Schnider, Armin. (2008). ''The Confabulating Mind: How the Brain Creates Reality''. Oxford University Press. pp. 167–1 ...

, especially for anyone who has seen ''

The Time Traveler's Wife ''The Time Traveler's Wife'' is the debut novel by American author Audrey Niffenegger, published in 2003. It is a love story about Henry, a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about Clare, his wife, an a ...

'', also co-starring McAdams. Unlike that film, she has no knowledge of his powers in ''About Time'', resulting in a "fundamental lack of honesty in their relationship." Felperin noted British reverse snobbery would put many off this and other Curtis films, but that this would be less of a problem among American Anglophiles and those willing to suspend disbelief, taking the characters as British "versions of

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

's Manhattanites (but with less angst)". Felperin praised the chemistry of the leading couple "that keeps the film aloft" and the supporting cast, while also criticising the stock characters as being too familiar.

Plot holes

Critics have pointed to the film's plot holes relating to

; how big or how many plot holes varied with the reviewer. Kate Erbland of ''

Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, prod ...

'' noted: "The rules and limitations of Tim's gift aren't exactly hard and fast, and the final third of the film is rife with complications that never get quite explained. Rules that previously applied suddenly don't apply ... the time travel rules aren't exactly tight and are occasionally confusing". Megan Gibson, writing in ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine, said that

fans would be put off by "gaping time-travel plot-holes", again suggesting that Tim's father's rules are repeatedly broken.

Mark Kermode Mark Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter (with Ellen E. Jones) of the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Screenshot'', and co-presenter ...

agreed that Curtis "sets up his rules of temporal engagement, only to break them willy-nilly whenever the prospect of an extra hug rears its head". Other critics who agreed include Steve Cummins of the '' Irish Post'' (the film is "riddled with plot holes"), Matthew Turner of ''View London'' (an "unsightly pile-up of plot holes and logic problems"), and Nicholas Barber from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', who called the explanation of time travel "shockingly inadequate" and asserted that "Curtis keeps leaving questions unanswered – time and time again".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the film was released on 3 September 2013 by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

featured contemporary singles from artists include:

the Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Crawley in 1976 by Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) and Lol Tolhurst (drums). The band's current line-up comprises Smith, Perry Bamonte (guitar and keyboards), Reev ...

the Killers The Killers are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2001 by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, bass) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar, backing vocals). After the band went through a number of short-term bas ...

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer, songwriter, and activist. Born in Hereford and raised in Lyonshall, Goulding began writing songs at the age of 15. She released her debut single " Under the Sheets" through ...

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman. With over 30 million records sold worldwide, she was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix ...

Sugababes The Sugababes are an English girl group composed of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan, and Siobhán Donaghy. The lineup changed three times before returning to the original lineup in 2011. Formed in 1998 by Ron Tom, the manager of All Saints, ...

and

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...

, a new version of

Ben Folds Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After playing in several small independent bands throughout the late 80s and into the early 90s, Folds came to prominence as the f ...

' song and Nick Laird-Clowes' score suite.

References

External links

* * * {{Richard Curtis 2013 films 2013 fantasy films 2013 romantic comedy-drama films 2013 science fiction films 2010s American films 2010s British films 2010s English-language films 2010s fantasy comedy-drama films 2010s films about time travel 2010s romantic fantasy films 2010s science fiction comedy-drama films 2010s science fiction romance films American fantasy comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films American romantic fantasy films American science fantasy films American science fiction comedy-drama films American science fiction romance films British fantasy comedy-drama films British romantic comedy-drama films British romantic fantasy films British science fantasy films British science fiction comedy-drama films British science fiction romance films English-language fantasy comedy-drama films English-language romantic comedy-drama films English-language romantic fantasy films English-language science fantasy films English-language science fiction comedy-drama films Films about father–son relationships Films directed by Richard Curtis Films produced by Eric Fellner Films produced by Tim Bevan Films set in Cornwall Films set in London Films shot in Cornwall Films shot in London Films with screenplays by Richard Curtis Magic realism films Relativity Media films Working Title Films films