Sartaj Singh
‘We Live in Time’ is a poignant, decade-spanning romance exploring the depth of raw emotion that a couple goes through in their highest highs and lowest lows. Tobias (Andrew Garfield) is down in the dumps and going through a divorce when Almut (Florence Pugh) crashes into him with her car. After she takes him to the hospital and tries to make it up to him, the two begin to grow closer. However, Almut is battling a cancer that is slowly eating away at the time she has left, and the two are painfully aware of the increasingly difficult junctures ahead. Directed by John Crowley, the film unfolds in a non-linear format and embarks on a profound exploration of love, grief, and mortality.
We Live in Time is a Work of Fiction that Deeply Resonated with Andrew Garfield
‘We Live in Time’ is a hard-hitting fictional film based on the screenplay by British Playwright Nick Payne. Despite not being rooted in an actual story, the movie immerses the audience in the reality of love and mortality with a life-affirming philosophy. It was this very characteristic of the film that drew Andrew Garfield to the role. The actor’s mother, Lynne Garfield, passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2019, and Garfield had been going through something of a mid-life crisis since.
“When I read (the script), I was in deep contemplation of the meaning of life. As always, but maybe more pronounced in that moment,” revealed the actor in an interview. “I was thinking about life, death, love, meaning, time… standing at the age of 39 and 40, kind of a mid-life crisis, looking forward, looking backward, looking exactly where I am.” After having gone through the script, he marveled at how it told a story that likely sprang from the same questions and confusion he was having.
The film’s message also resonated with the memory of his mother, who was full of love for life and nature. Taking on the emotionally charged role of Tobias allowed him to honor the emotional turmoil his father went through upon losing the love of his life. The actor realizes that the subtle discoveries made in the film are those that took him a long time to figure out for himself. One of the key takeaways of the movie for him was that sorrow and joy are one and the same. We can’t have one without the other, only going as high as we can go low. Ultimately, Garfield considers the project a blessing in disguise on a personal level, helping him through the uncertainty of his mid-life crisis.
The Film Motivated Florence Pugh to Renew Her Search For Love
The powerful storytelling of ‘We Live in Time’ is grounded in an unflinching look at raw emotions and the realities of life and love. Much like Andrew Garfield, lead actress Florence Pugh also felt thoroughly moved by it. By the time she concluded filming, she felt an unprecedented connection with her costar and sincerely hoped that they would get to work together again. The project came at a pertinent time for the actress, as she had been going through unpleasant experiences with relationships over the past year. The 28-year-old was inspired by the film not to remain passive when it came to romance and, instead, go out and find love.
We Live in Time is Filled with Love and Longing Reminiscent of a Past Era
For director John Crowley, ‘We Live in Time’ briefly reminded him of the first movie he worked on with Andrew Garfield, ‘Boy A.’ At the time of the 2007 film, Garfield was scared of the role since it was his first time leading, and he almost backed out of the film. Crowley convinced him to stay and helped Garfield deliver a performance that won him a BAFTA. In the director’s eyes, the sensitivity he brought to the role then has become far more profound with decades of emotional experience and loss to draw upon.
The director postulates that the film belongs to the same era in which Garfield had started his career. He feels as though relationships have lost much of their innocence and intimacy, and people are becoming far more guarded in matters of romance. “We’re much less intimate with reality,” said the director in an interview. “There’s such a kind of dividedness around how we experience the world now, and I think it feels like this is a film filled with longing in that way. I think there’s either an unconscious or even conscious longing in the audience for these images. To see that level of intimacy and connection being lived out on screen.” ‘We Live in Time’ thus holds the potential to invoke a deep emotional resonance through its profoundly life-affirming story, regardless of its fictional nature.
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