It’s not a Groundhog Day movie
About Time has time travel in it. Let’s get that out of the way. And while on the surface it seems to feature a Groundhog temporal loop, it doesn’t.
The young man in question (a sincere, naive Domhnall Gleeson) can go back in time and fix things as often as he wants, but he’s not stuck in an endless day. His life keeps trucking on in linear fashion, with occasional (and sometimes frequent) forays into the past to change things to his liking. Or try to.
How enjoyable the story is depends on what genre About Time lands in. The protagonist isn’t a superhero or a Mutant. He’s not someone who has to figure out a plot MacGuffin in order to restart time, stop a train from blowing up, or learn who murdered them. It is exactly none of those things. My vote for the genre for About Time — it’s a common, low-stakes drama about navigating the ups and downs of early adulthood.
The World’s Most Indispensable Movie App
The RunPee app tells you the best times to
run & pee during a movie
so you don't miss the best scenes.
Download the RunPee app.
100% free (donation supported)
In fact, I have two things to say about the plot:
- You could remove the entire element of time travel and the movie would read almost exactly the same.
- The time travel elements are the only things interesting in the movie.
From my dueling points above, one could guess I didn’t like About Time very much. That assumption is only partly true. This isn’t a Groundhog Day Loop and it doesn’t quality as sci-fi or fantasy, or even as a supernatural thriller. It is LITERALLY about a young man meeting a girl and making a family. It’s all so….normal.
I love weird genre stuff and I’m the resident expert on all things Groundhoggy. My expectations were higher.
Bill Nighy — whom I adore — plays his usual charming curmudgeon self with less energy than usual. He did his thing far better in Love, Actually, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Shaun of the Dead. Nighy might get more animated with a wackier script than this. Given the premise, he probably thought this would be right up his alley.
Grading About Time is a messy thing
About Time is a fluffy, sentimental little B drama.
But it’s a failure as a time travel story. What I’m trying to determine is whether that’s on purpose or not.
What people are saying
about the RunPee app.
July 30, 2023
My bladder thanks you so much!! App works great for telling u when and for how long you have a pee break! I didn’t use the timer function so the dialog in the movie was a great clue as to when to go. I also liked the info about each movie to know whether there was any extra scenes during or after the credits. Nothing worse than waiting for all the credits and then no extra scene.
View all reviews
Apple App Store | Google Play Store
Download RunPee app
We’re all time travelers in a way (forward in life, backwards in memory), playing our small-stakes lives on a tragi-pleasant stage. About Time Writer/Director Richard Curtis might have been pushing for mundane normalcy as the result of it all, even with an ability to control time. That with great power, sometimes you get nothing much at all.
If so, the point is buried. I don’t know if About Time is clever enough to have a subtext. But it’s a nice dramatic tale if you don’t expect too much loopy goodness.
Movie Grade: B
Don’t miss your favorite movie moments because you have to pee or need a snack. Use the RunPee app (Androidor iPhone) when you go to the movies. We have Peetimes for all wide release films every week, including Wicked, Gladiator II, Red One, The Wild Robot and coming soon Moana 2, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Kraven the Hunter, Mufasa: The Lion King and many others. We have literally thousands of Peetimes—from classic movies through today’s blockbusters. You can also keep up with movie news and reviews on our blog, or by following us on Twitter @RunPee. If there’s a new film out there, we’ve got your bladder covered.
Leave a Reply