Keeper's Book Reviews: Movie Review: About Time (2013)

At the age of 21, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers he can travel in time... The night after another unsatisfactory New Year party, Tim's father (Bill Nighy) tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. Tim can't change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life-so he decides to make his world a better place...by getting a girlfriend. Sadly, that turns out not to be as easy as you might think. Moving from the Cornwall coast to London to train as a lawyer, Tim finally meets the beautiful but insecure Mary (Rachel McAdams). They fall in love, then an unfortunate time-travel incident means he's never met her at all. So they meet for the first time again-and again-but finally, after a lot of cunning time-traveling, he wins her heart. Tim then uses his power to create the perfect romantic proposal, to save his wedding from the worst best-man speeches, to save his best friend from professional disaster and to...
~ Universal Pictures

I always judge books and movies by their covers, and usually, it turns out well. This time...not really. Yes, this movie was (slightly) romantic, and yes, this movie was funny (in a really weird way), but it's definitely not what I would call a romantic comedy. It's just too touchy-feely for me. I watch movies as a form of entertainment, not to form a moral compass. And let me tell you, this movie's moral was so unoriginal that given the chance, I don't think I would have chosen to watch this movie. Or maybe I would have. And then there's the fact I didn't know this movie was British. How I didn't realize that from the movie poster, the world may never know.

This movie is definitely not one to watch alone; if you watch it, do it with a friend or something. I remember reading somewhere that this is a great movie to watch as a couple. Don't. While I have no idea how the male mind works, I'm still pretty sure that a movie like this won't appeal to them, though it might amuse them at times. I'm a girl and that's how I felt during this movie (and just so you know, I'm not a tomboy). Maybe a married couple could appreciate this movie though...

I found the pacing of this movie quite weird, and it confused and annoyed me several times throughout the movie. This is just a rough estimate, but this movie seems to span a total of ten years, which is 8-9 too many years in my opinion. The movie started out slow as could be, despite the fact that time-travel was introduced very quickly in the movie. Then after the thousand tries it took for Tim to get a girlfriend, it seemed unnatural how fast-paced everything was. And did you know that with time travel, you can turn a one-night stand into a three-night stand without the other person ever knowing??!! It's kind of creepy what goes on in that screenwriter's head. After Tim was happily settled in London, finally having accomplished his life-long goal, the movie starts slowing down again, even though the movie is nowhere near done yet. This is the part about death and sadness, and the limits of time travel. I know this is weird, but I recall being more into the movie now than I was on the other side of the movie's halfway point. This was the sad part of the movie, and yet it was the most important.

I can't say I enjoyed much of this movie. The whole plot seemed stupid to me. If someone asked me what the point of this movie was, I'd say "to teach people that time travel doesn't give you happiness." Given the choice, I'd still choose being able to time-travel, so I guess in a way this movie really was pointless. Asked the same question again, I'd answer differently: 'the point of this movie is to show people the consequences of not researching a movie before watching it." Keep that in mind everyone; it is the true moral in this movie.

To be truly fair though, the movie isn't a huge waste of time. It's interesting in the way unromantic classics are interesting. You feel like you just have to finish them because of their snark and interesting, wordy conversations, but after you're done, you don't realize the point of reading it (besides the fact you can brag about reading it). I don't realize the point of watching this movie, but I can't deny learning some interesting things about fixing things with time travel. I don't think my last paragraph of "watch this movie!" is required though, because the trailer below will definitely convince you if I haven't - and I probably haven't - already. Just...be careful about choosing whether this movie is worth the two hours it takes to watch.