On Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, director John Crowley’s romantic drama movie “We Live in Time” came to theaters in the US. Actors Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh play the two leading characters, Tobias Durand and Almut Brühl, whose decade-long relationship is presented in a non-linear storytelling structure.
Within the first half hour of the film, it is understood that there are three different pivotal moments of Durand and Brühl’s relationship being shown simultaneously: how they met, giving birth to their daughter, and coping with Brühl’s recurrence of cancer.
One moment, Durand and Brühl are living together and raising their daughter, Ella. The next scene, Brühl is experiencing contractions as she approaches the 40-week mark of her pregnancy. Yet, another minute later, Durand and Brühl meet for the first time after she mistakenly crashes into him with her Mini Cooper as he is crossing the road.
While the timelines all overlap with one another and it is confusing to piece together the order of each event, one thing is clear: how deep Durand and Brühl’s love for each other goes.
The film begins with Durand and Brühl visiting her doctor and discovering that she has stage three ovarian cancer, and needs chemotherapy to shrink her tumor prior to surgery, but even then her chance of survival is low. Brühl is hesitant to undergo treatment, as she would rather enjoy her last few months of life to the fullest, rather than spend them being sick and in pain. Durand supports her in her decision.
In the next scene, Durand and Brühl first meet, they are in the hospital as Durand was severely injured after being hit by Brühl’s car. They introduce themselves to one another; Durand is a Weetabix representative going through a divorce and Brühl is an up-and-coming chef opening a European restaurant. She invites him to the grand opening, where sparks fly between them instantaneously and they soon begin to live together.
Between these two main plotlines, there are scenes of Durand and Brühl navigating through a pregnancy, whether it is going to the hospital or taking care of Brühl during her contractions, and ultimately giving birth to their only daughter.
In all honesty, the plot lines are intertwined in a way where it is difficult to tell when the time skips are; the actors look the exact same throughout the entirety of the movie, with no changes to their hair or wardrobe, so it is hard to tell that various scenes are supposed to be years apart. The only time it is easy to identify which scenes are which is when Brühl’s hair is shaved off.
Despite the odd sequencing of the storytelling, Durand and Brühl’s story is beautiful. Both Garfield and Pugh were able to convey their characters’ emotions so well that it is difficult to forget that this was just a movie. Furthermore, Brühl’s character was written well as she was able to keep her sense of self throughout her journey of motherhood and during her battle with cancer. Each moment between the characters was full of love and brought about so many emotions that I found myself in tears every couple of minutes.
For fans of Netflix’s limited series “One Day” or the musical romance film “La La Land,” “We Live in Time” is the perfect movie to watch. It is a testament to true love and how it prevails even during the most difficult times of someone’s life.
