Not so frequently asked questions about time travel---Domnhall Gleeson and Bill Nighy as a father and son with the ability to travel in time in About Time
Let me preface this review by saying that Notting Hill is my favorite romance film ever and Love Actually is my second. I say this to display that, naturally, I expect quite a bit from the man who made these films. That man is Richard Curtis and his newest film, About Time is the most enjoyable romantic comedy of the past couple of years until a point but I'll get to that later. This is a wonderful film in general, however.
The film stars Brendan Gleeson's son, Domnhall Gleeson as Tim....a rather unremarkable young man who messes up just about every chance he gets. On the day of his 21st birthday, his father (Bill Nighy) tells Tim about a gift the men in their family have---they can travel in time. There are a couple of rules, however. They can't travel into the future and they can only travel back to a place they've been. This makes it so that you can make a bad day good by doing everything right or just fix a simple mistake. The film then follows Tim as he meets Mary (Rachel McAdams) and forms an incredible relationship with her. Oh yeah and Tim learns the true meaning of life.
This is in general an excellent film. Gleeson, Nighy and McAdams are all absolutely terrific and all have incredibly palpable chemistry with one another. Nighy is the most underrated actor working in Hollywood in my eyes while Gleeson proves to have a long career ahead of him and McAdams proves to be the ideal romantic lead. The film has a great message about learning to see the beauty in life. However, the last half an hour or so of the film almost ruins it for me. Even though that's when the nice message comes in----it feels as if writer-director Curtis had no idea how to end it. The film features about seven shots in which it could easily had ended and when the final shot does come---it's pretty bland. The last act of the film, however can not ruing how delightful the rest is---it can just come close.
About Time can't quite live up to the sheer excellence of Notting Hill or Love Actually but it's the freshest, funniest and best romance to come out in the past five years or so. That may not seem like much of a complaint considering the smut that been disguised as romance over those years but I can say this is a very, very, very good film.
(4 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for language and some sexual content)
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