About Time

I already felt sorry for Richard Curtis before the premiere in one aspect. He simply couldn't live up to the expectations of fans who wanted something like a time-traveling Love Actually, no matter how hard he tried. That's why the path he took is so surprising – a path preceded by no such futile attempt. Not that it is devoid of romance, because the band in the subway or the stormy ceremony almost left me speechless with their power. But there's something more here. Those obligatory family values that turn into golden words and private emotional weight. It is in their strength that something makes About Time a film that you almost cannot put a price on. It has a somewhat unnecessarily piercing sci-fi aspect, a perfectly dialogued romantic storyline as expected, and plenty of friendly humor. And then comes the last act, and Bill Nighy becomes a person from my life, someone I can't return to with any wardrobe, and everything is somewhere else again, beyond the boundaries of the five-star scale. And exactly there, at the very end, it is best to see where Curtis has arrived. To a place where everything is not there in service to romance, but where romance serves an even more personal and timeless transcendence. It is hard to say what all the director managed to express here. But if this is truly his last directing endeavor, he can walk away from the chair with his head held high, because he (again) leaves at the scene of the crime something without comparison. (04/11/2013)

Objectively speaking, I could raise about a dozen objections against the film, meaning I could give it an average review, but what can you do? It's one of those films where you don't care about logical lapses and plot contrivances because you are enticed by the dialogue tapped from life and by the romantic storyline polished to perfection without flaw or blemish. After that, you're just left jumping for joy at personal highlights like a woman's choice of dress, and when it comes to the black-clad funeral procession, you raise your glasses to wipe away a tear without feeling bad about it; Richard Curtis creates experiences. (25/11/2013)

What at first appeared to be a not particularly breezy, but thanks to the constant hinting that Rachel McAdams might show mammary glands, watchable romance in a genetically engineered Britain where there are hardly any minorities and one doesn't care about the ugly chick (whereas I would have assumed Curtis would have at some point been to England) degenerates into something unreal in the last third. I know that this sphere probably pays for cinema tickets, but the horrible final ode to the petty joys of the middle class of absolutely uninteresting people with whom I understand the viewer is supposed to identify somehow to embody an answer to the question of what a new mother’s discussion forum election spot would look like if Andrej Babiš were still trying to get publicity through it. And it would have been filmed by Renč. (11/02/2014)

I didn't find the idea of time travel very well and logically used (The Time Traveler's Wife played with it better, if I have to compare it within the romantic genre) and it was too long, so I couldn't escape boredom by the end. So the third film directed by Richard Curtis is, from my point of view, "just" a pleasant spectacle with likeable actors and one great actor (Bill Nighy, of course), with a nice soundtrack and some really funny scenes. (19/01/2015)

Richard Curtis has a truly distinctive style, but this time it wasn't all that fun with him. I wish I could give five stars to a film starring my favorite Bill Nighy, but although the filmmakers managed to create a pleasantly relaxing atmosphere. The romantic and touching moments far outbalanced the funny ones, verging on pathos at times, which was a disappointment. What I think the film needed was a quicker pace and a good dose of English humor. I would have added a star or two in that case. (17/04/2018)