Advertisement
Directed by John Crowley, We Live in Time is a gut-wrenching drama starring Andrew Garfield as Tobias and Florence Pugh as Almut. The movie follows a couple, Tobias and Almut, whose love story unfolds through a non-linear narrative. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie captures a heart-wrenching tale of love and loss.
The highly anticipated A24 romance is about ordinary people falling in love and desperately trying to escape the looming presence of time. However, it’s also a story about cancer and the shadow of death behind it. Andrew Garfield’s Tobias is a recently separated and aimless IT worker at Weetabix who is captivated by Pugh’s Almut, a spirited chef and restaurant owner determined not to sacrifice her dreams. As their lives slowly fall into sync, shown through separate timelines of their journey as friends, lovers, and parents, the audience learns about Almut’s ovarian cancer. This revelation runs throughout the film’s hour and 44-minute runtime, and the diagnosis quietly shapes the narrative.
In the emotional end of As We Live in Time, Almut, now quite ill, agrees to start chemotherapy but makes it straightforward to Tobias that she doesn’t want her final days spent feeling weak and confined. Although Tobias reluctantly agrees, he struggles with the idea. On the other hand, Almut secretly signs up for the prestigious Bocuse d’Or cooking competition, training behind his back. When Tobias finds out, he feels hurt and blindsided. Of course, he would feel so knowing she has so little left, and how could she keep this secret from him, who loves and knows her better than anyone?
Advertisement
