About Time (2013 film)

Film by Richard Curtis

About Time

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Richard Curtis
Written by| Richard Curtis
Produced by|

* Tim Bevan
* Eric Fellner
* Nicky Kentish Barnes

Starring|

* Domhnall Gleeson
* Rachel McAdams
* Bill Nighy
* Tom Hollander
* Margot Robbie

Cinematography| John Guleserian
Edited by| Mark Day
Music by| Nick Laird-Clowes

Production
companies

* Working Title Films
* Relativity Media

Distributed by| Universal Pictures

Release dates

* 27 June 2013 (2013-06-27) (EIFF)
* 4 September 2013 (2013-09-04) (United Kingdom)
* 1 November 2013 (2013-11-01) (United States)

Running time

| 123 minutes[1]
Countries|

* United Kingdom[2][3]
* United States[2][3]

Language| English
Budget| $12 million[4]
Box office| $88.5 million[4][5]

About Time is a 2013 romantic science fiction comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Curtis,[6] and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, and Bill Nighy.

The film is about a young man with the ability to time travel who tries to change his past in hopes of improving his future.[7] The film was released in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2013.[8]

The film received mixed reviews from critics. At the box office, it grossed $87.1 million against a $12 million budget. It was dedicated to actor Richard Griffiths,[9] who died a few months before the film's release, marking his final film appearance.

## Plot

[edit]

Tim Lake grows up on the coast in Cornwall, with his father James, mother Mary, absent-minded uncle Desmond, and free-spirited younger sister Katherine ("Kit Kat"). The morning after a less-than-great New Year’s Eve party, James tells Tim that the men of their family can travel back in time to moments they have lived before. Tim tests this by going back to the previous night’s party and changing a few events. When he returns, James discourages him from using his gift to acquire money or fame, and Tim decides to use it to improve his love life.

The following summer, Kit Kat's friend Charlotte visits. Although instantly smitten, he waits until the last day to tell her; she tells him he should have told her earlier. Tim travels back in time to tell Charlotte in the middle of the holiday, but she suggests he wait until her last day. Heartbroken, he realises she is uninterested in him, and time travel cannot change anyone's mind. Believing he has lost true love, Tim becomes jaded.

Tim moves to London to work as a lawyer, living with his father's acquaintance Harry, an angry misanthropic playwright. He visits a Dans le Noir restaurant, where he meets Mary, an American who works for a publisher. They flirt in the darkness, and afterward, she gives Tim her phone number. He returns home to a distraught Harry, whose new play's opening night has been ruined by an actor forgetting his lines. Tim goes back in time to help the actor, so the play is a triumph.

However, when Tim tries to call Mary, he discovers that by going back in time to help Harry, the evening with her never occurred so he does not have her number. Recalling Mary's obsession with Kate Moss, he attends a Kate Moss exhibition every day until he sees Mary.

Mary, having never met Tim, is initially confused but still allows him to join her and her friend. During lunch, he discovers that she now has a boyfriend. Tim goes back to when and where they met, turning up early before the potential boyfriend arrives, and persuades Mary to leave with him instead.

Their relationship develops and Tim moves in with Mary. One night, he encounters Charlotte, who is now interested in him, something he initially seems to consider before he turns down the invitation of intimacy as he is in love with Mary. Tim returns home and proposes. They travel to Cornwall to announce their engagement and Mary’s pregnancy. They marry and have a daughter Posy.

Kit Kat's relationship and employment struggles lead her to drunkenly crash her car on Posy's first birthday. As she recovers, Tim decides to intervene: he prevents the crash and takes her back to avert her relationship with Jimmy. Returning to the present, he finds Posy has never been born but he has a son instead. James explains that changing events prior to their children's birth may alter the exact child conceived.

Tim accepts that he cannot solve his sister's problems by changing her past; he lets the crash happen, ensuring Posy's birth, and he and Mary help Kit Kat face her problems to improve her own life. She settles down with Tim's friend Jay and has her own child. Tim and Mary have another baby girl, ensuring Kit Kat's future.

Tim learns James has terminal lung cancer and that time travel cannot change it, as going back to remove his habitual smoking would undo his and Kit Kat's conception. His father has known for some time, travelling back in time to effectively extend his life and spend more time with his family.

He tells Tim to live each day twice to be truly happy: first, with all the everyday tensions and worries, but the second time noticing how sweet the world can be. Tim follows this advice; his father dies, but Tim travels to the past to visit whenever he misses him.

Mary tells Tim she wants a third child. He is reluctant as he will not be able to visit his father again. Tim tells James, so together they travel back to relive a fond memory from Tim's early childhood, taking care not to actually change the experience to avoid causing any changes to the present.

Mary gives birth to a boy, and Tim realises that it is better to live each day once. From that point on he decides to not time travel at all, and comes to appreciate life with his family as if he is living it for the second time.

## Cast

[edit]

* Domhnall Gleeson as Tim Lake
* Rachel McAdams as Mary
* Bill Nighy as James Lake
* Lydia Wilson as Kit Kat
* Lindsay Duncan as Mary Lake
* Richard Cordery as Uncle Desmond
* Joshua McGuire as Rory
* Tom Hollander as Harry Chapman
* Margot Robbie as Charlotte
* Will Merrick as Jay
* Vanessa Kirby as Joanna
* Tom Hughes as Jimmy Kincade
* Clemmie Dugdale as Ginger Jenny
* Harry Hadden-Paton as Rupert
* Mitchell Mullen as Mary's Father, Fitz
* Lisa Eichhorn as Mary's Mother, Jean
* Jenny Rainsford as Polly

Richard Griffiths and Richard E. Grant make uncredited appearances as lawyer characters in a play, with Griffiths's being his final film role.

## Production

[edit]

The grade II listed Porthpean House acted as Tim's family home.[10]

By Curtis's own admission the conception of the idea "was a slow growth".[11] The genesis of the idea came when Curtis was eating lunch with a friend and the subject of happiness came up. Upon admitting he was not truly happy in life, the conversation turned towards him describing an ideal day. From here Curtis realised that the day of the lunch, for him, constituted such a day, which led to him deciding to write a film about "how you achieve happiness in ordinary life". Thinking that the concept was too "simple" he decided to add a time travel element to the film.[11]

Although the production contracted out various effect houses to try to make the time-traveling effects feel like more of a spectacle, they found the resulting work "just completely wrong" tonally and instead focused on a more low-key approach. Curtis has opined "that in the end, it turns out to be a kind of anti-time travel movie. It uses all the time travel stuff but without it feeling like it's a science fiction thing particularly or without it feeling that time travel can actually solve your life."[11]

Curtis is primarily known as a screenwriter, and About Time was only his third ever film as a director (plus one television short); he said the film was likely to be his last film as director, but that he will continue in the film industry.[12]

Zooey Deschanel had been in talks for the role of Mary, but ultimately, the role went to McAdams.[13][14]

## Release

[edit]

About Time's initial release was set for 10 May 2013 but was pushed back to 1 November 2013.[8] It premiered on 8 August 2013 as part of the Film4 Summer Screen outdoor cinema series at the historic Somerset House in London.[15] It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2013. It received a limited US release on 1 November, with a general release on 8 November 2013.

The film became a surprise success in South Korea, where it was watched by more than three million people, one of the highest numbers among the foreign romantic comedy films released in Korea.[16] It grossed a total of $23,434,443 there, its highest country total.[17]

## Reception

[edit]

About Time received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 164 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Beautifully filmed and unabashedly sincere, About Time finds director Richard Curtis at his most sentimental."[18] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100, based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "mixed reviews".[19]

Catherine Shoard of The Guardian compared the film to Groundhog Day noting it "is about as close to home as a homage can get without calling in the copyright team" and describes Domhnall Gleeson as a "ginger Hugh Grant", which "at first, is unnerving; as About Time marches on, Gleeson's innate charm gleams through and this weird disconnection becomes quite compelling." Shoard gave the film two stars out of five.[20] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph praised the comic timing of McAdams and Gleeson, but criticised the film, comparing it to a quilt, calling it "soft, frayed at the edges, and oh so comfortable" and gives it three stars out of five.[21]

Leslie Felperin of Variety called the film "reassuringly bland" and says there is a sense of déjà vu, especially for anyone who has seen The Time Traveler's Wife, also co-starring McAdams. Unlike that film, she has no knowledge of his powers in About Time, resulting in a "fundamental lack of honesty in their relationship." Felperin noted British reverse snobbery would put many off this and other Curtis films, but that this would be less of a problem among American Anglophiles and those willing to suspend disbelief, taking the characters as British "versions of Woody Allen's Manhattanites (but with less angst)". Felperin praised the chemistry of the leading couple "that keeps the film aloft" and the supporting cast, while also criticising the stock characters as being too familiar.[3]

### Plot holes

[edit]

Critics have pointed to the film's plot holes relating to time travel; how big or how many plot holes varied with the reviewer. Kate Erbland of Film School Rejects noted: "The rules and limitations of Tim's gift aren't exactly hard and fast, and the final third of the film is rife with complications that never get quite explained. Rules that previously applied suddenly don't apply ... the time travel rules aren't exactly tight and are occasionally confusing".[22] Megan Gibson, writing in Time magazine, said that science fiction fans would be put off by "gaping time-travel plot-holes", again suggesting that Tim's father's rules are repeatedly broken.[23] Mark Kermode agreed that Curtis "sets up his rules of temporal engagement, only to break them willy-nilly whenever the prospect of an extra hug rears its head".[24] Other critics who agreed include Steve Cummins of the Irish Post (the film is "riddled with plot holes"),[25] Matthew Turner of View London (an "unsightly pile-up of plot holes and logic problems"),[26] and Nicholas Barber from The Independent, who called the explanation of time travel "shockingly inadequate" and asserted that "Curtis keeps leaving questions unanswered – time and time again".[27]

## Soundtrack

[edit]

Main article: About Time (soundtrack)

The soundtrack to the film was released on 3 September 2013 by Decca Records featured contemporary singles from artists include: the Cure, the Killers, Ellie Goulding, Amy Winehouse, Sugababes and Nick Cave, a new version of Ben Folds' song and Nick Laird-Clowes' score suite.[28]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "About Time". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
2. ^ a b "About Time (2013)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
3. ^ a b c Felperin, Leslie (8 August 2013). "Film Review: 'About Time'". Variety. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
4. ^ a b "About Time". The Numbers. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
5. ^ "About Time (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
6. ^ Kemp, Stuart. "'War Horse' Writer Richard Curtis to Direct Time-Travel Script 'About Time' for Working Title (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
\- Child, Ben (19 January 2012). "Richard Curtis decides it's About Time he directed a film about time travel". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
7. ^ White, James (27 January 2013). "New Pic of About Time: Richard Curts' new time-warping comedy". Empire. Archived from the original on 9 June 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
8. ^ a b Rome, Emily. "Rachel McAdams rom-com 'About Time' gets new release date". Inside Movies. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
9. ^ "Potter and Withnail actor Richard Griffiths dies". BBC News. BBC. 29 March 2013. Archived from the original on 29 March 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
10. ^ "Famous filming locations in Cornwall". Cornwall Life. 16 September 2020. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
11. ^ a b c Billington, Alex (12 November 2013). "Interview: 'About Time' Writer & Director Richard Curtis on Happiness". Firstshowing.net. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
12. ^ Child, Ben (31 July 2013). "Richard Curtis: 'About Time will probably be the last film I direct'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
13. ^ Pulver, Andrew (11 May 2012). "Rachel McAdams to star in Richard Curtis romcom About Time". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
14. ^ Chang, Justin (27 March 2012). "Deschanel, Gleeson on 'Time' for Working Title". Variety. Archived from the original on 19 September 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
15. ^ "Film4 Summer Screen: About Time Competition". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
16. ^ 김, 진성. "'어바웃 타임' 300만 돌파, '로코' 흥행 기록 다시 썼다". TV Daily (in Korean). Archived from the original on 18 March 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
17. ^ "International gross figures from Box Office Mojo". BoxOfficeMojo. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
18. ^ "About Time (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 8 March 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
19. ^ "About Time". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
20. ^ Shoard, Catherine (8 August 2013). "About Time – first look review". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
21. ^ Collin, Robbie (8 August 2013). "About Time, review". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
22. ^ Erbland, Kate (1 October 2013). "'About Time' Review: Time-Traveling Charmer Arrives Right in the Nick". Film School Rejects. Archived from the original on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
23. ^ Gibson, Megan (5 November 2013). "Plot-holes and Problems in Richard Curtis's 'About Time'". Time. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
24. ^ Kermode, Mark (8 September 2013). "About Time — review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
25. ^ Cummins, Steve (6 September 2013). "About Time: Film Review". The Irish Post. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
26. ^ Turner, Matthew (4 September 2013). "About Time Film Review". ViewLondon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
27. ^ Barber, Nicholas (30 August 2013). "Why time does not travel well in Richard Curtis' new film 'About Time'". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013.
28. ^ Jagernauth, Kevin (16 August 2013). "'About Time' Soundtrack Features The Killers, The Cure, Amy Winehouse, Nick Cave & More". IndieWire. Retrieved 11 April 2023.

## External links

[edit]

* Cornwall portal

* Quotations related to About Time (2013 film) at Wikiquote
* About Time at IMDb
* About Time at Box Office Mojo

* v
* t
* e

Richard Curtis

Film|

| Written and directed|

* Love Actually (2003)
* The Boat That Rocked (2009)
* About Time (2013)

|

Written only|

* The Tall Guy (1989)
* Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
* Bean (1997)
* Notting Hill (1999)
* Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
* Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
* War Horse (2011)
* Trash (2014)
* Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
* Yesterday (2019)
* Genie (2023)
* That Christmas (2024)

Television|

| TV films|

* Bernard and the Genie (1991)
* Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999)
* The Girl in the Café (2005)
* Mary and Martha (2013)
* Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (2015)
* Red Nose Day Actually (2017)

|

Series|

* Blackadder (1983–1989)
* Mr. Bean (1990–1995)
* The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2007)
* The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2008)

Other|

* "Vincent and the Doctor" (Doctor Who episode, 2010)
* Robbie the Reindeer

Other|

* Comic Relief
* The Atkinson People (1979)
* Dead on Time (1983)
* No Pressure (2010)

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