About Time

Overview

Richard Curtis is the master of the rom-com. The man behind Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, he's the king of date nights out and girlie evenings in.

He's also the man behind About Time, his latest offering starring the relative unknown Domhnall Gleeson as Tim and the new queen of cute romantic leads (since Julia Roberts hung up her heels), Rachel McAdams. The film begins on the completely ridiculous premise, explained by Tim father (the ever superb Bill Nighy ) that the men in their family can travel in time.

Tim takes this skill and uses it, not for monetary gain, nor to try and right the wrongs of the past, but rather to help him get a girlfriend. It then goes on to become a love story which is rather quickly resolved into being the perfect romance, with the aid of the occasional trip into the past.

Questions about the butterfly effect and other pesky time travel issues are swept under the carpet in favour of smooching in front of buskers and dancing in the rain (which has never been timed more perfectly than in a Curtis film). And most of the time, you let them. Despite the film lacking a keen eye for detail in the plot, every attempt at stepping back and casting a critical eye over the film is thwarted by the soundtrack, Nighy's charm and Gleeson's unbelievably adorable wave. These elements all conspire in drawing you more comfortably into your seat so you can smile at the antics, laugh at the jokes and cry when the heartstrings are so professionally plucked by the virtuoso Curtis.

So while the set-up is flimsy, the minor characters caricatures and the love story all too quickly resolved, there are enough moments of mirthful giggling and nostalgic smiling to keep you plodding along over every jolting plot hole. And with the added bonus that the main man is a ginger? About time that happened really.