adminFilm: About Time
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, tom Hollander, Margot Robbie, Will Merrick, Clarice Dugdale, Jon West.
Writer & Director: Richard Curtis
Cinema: Eastgate
Running time: 125 minutes
Type of film: Fantasy/Comedy
Age restriction: 16
Prof. Joel White At the Movies
Richard CURTIS, currently riding high as Britain’s favourite director (Notting Hill, Love Actually) has added the writing of the film in this case, and has undoubtedly enjoyed the freedom to fantasise which this has given him. Some may say that he did not know when to stop.
We are in the heart of today’s London. Tim has graduated from high school and simultaneously turned 18. His father (Bill Nighy, born in 1949 in Surrey, and with an arm’s length list of hits and awards to his credit) decides it’s just the time to take his son aside and let him in on a family secret. And what a bombshell.
Tim learns what it is about his father that has puzzled him all these years: that in the male line of the family there exists, at manhood, the ability to go back and repeat an action if when done the first time the result is not satisfactory. Just imagine: if you learned of such a secret ability in your family, now passed on to you, how long would it be before you tried it out? In Tim’s case, it takes less than five minutes.
And with a succession of hilarious results. Never mind the confusion it sows to all those around you, who can’t quite figure out what is going on. The film takes an unexpected and surprising turn upon the death of Tim’s father, upon which it could be said that the film dwells over-long.
But it’s probable that the film’s creator is simply letting us know that it’s now the son’s turn to keep a family secret until the eldest of his children will turn 18. I feel that, with this film, the writer/director is expressing his belief that, aided by a little magic, it will be possible for mankind to improve our destiny.
Online Reporter