We Live in Time (2024)

We Live in Time shuffles its love story out of order, and for a while you’re mostly doing math. Florence Pugh’s Almut, a chef and former figure skater, meets Andrew Garfield’s Tobias, an IT guy at Weetabix, by hitting him with her car while he’s out buying a pen to sign his divorce papers. From there the film hops between their first days together, their daughter’s surprise arrival in a petrol station bathroom, and the stretch after Almut’s cancer returns, when she secretly trains for the Bocuse d’Or, a top cooking competition. Some critics found the jumbled order distancing, and a few jumps do feel random. But Garfield and Pugh have chemistry that holds every timeline together, and Pugh makes Almut stubborn, funny and proud. The illness is handled with honesty, never milked. It holds a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 6.9 because Garfield and Pugh are wonderful and the shuffled timeline holds you off a beat too long. $9.86 says you crack your next egg the way Almut does and go a little quiet.

What works: Garfield and Pugh have warm, believable chemistry, and the film treats Almut’s illness and her choices with real care.

What doesn’t: The scrambled timeline sometimes feels arbitrary and keeps you at a distance from characters the script only sketches.

Who it’s for: Fans of big, sincere romantic dramas who don’t mind bringing tissues.