About Time | The Coast Halifax

About Time

Fantastical gets forgotten

Temporal paradoxes are the least of the problems in sci-fi rom-com-dram About Time. Upon reaching 21, ginger Tim (Domhnal Gleeson, son of Brendan) is informed by his father that he can travel back in time. It's a trait shared by all men in the family, who over the centuries have used the ability to live life to the fullest. Tim decides his gift's best spent getting laid. He woos introverted Rachel McAdams by uncoupling her from her boyfriend and parroting her own theories about Kate Moss back to her in a charming display of temporal sleaze. When it's just rewriting relationships, About Time comes across as a tone-deaf Ruby Sparks, but the film often forgets its fantastical presence for long, long stretches of relationship minutiae. About the only thing that works is scamp Bill Nighy as Tim's gleeful father. Juvenile reverie, About Time can't make sense of time travel, let alone love.