{"id":1629,"date":"2013-11-08T14:15:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T22:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=1629"},"modified":"2013-11-11T12:57:27","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T20:57:27","slug":"time-gets-little-lost-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/time-gets-little-lost-time\/","title":{"rendered":"‘About Time’ Gets a Little Lost in Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing we can agree on: Richard Curtis has a lot of ideas, many of which are terrific.<\/p>\n

As both a screenwriter and a director, Curtis has been responsible for some very, very clever and crowd-pleasing movies. Included in his credits are the hits Four Weddings and a Funera<\/em>l (he co-wrote that 1994 film\u2019s screenplay) and Love, Actually<\/em> (he both wrote and directed that 2003 ensemble piece), as well as the underrated 2009 comedy Pirate Radio<\/em> (aka The Boat That Rocked<\/em>).<\/p>\n

His problem is that he often has too many ideas and doesn\u2019t know how to prune out the go-nowhere and\/or less-important ones from his works. Often enough, his works are so overstuffed with characters and plot that they begin to resemble a holiday bird that\u2019s been filled with not only stuffing, but also with the dessert, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad, rolls and cranberry sauce as well.<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s not to say that his latest, the science-fiction\/romantic comedy About Time<\/em>, is a cinematic turkey. It\u2019s just so overflowing with ideas and characters that the main point it\u2019s trying to make nearly eludes it.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s got some smarts, some welcome laughs and some genuinely touching, heartfelt moments. The movie also provides a sturdy, first major starring role for Domhnall Gleeson, the son of Irish character actor Brendan Gleeson. He stars as Tim Lake, a twenty-something, would-be legal eagle who\u2019s just found out something startling about the male members of his family.<\/p>\n

According to Tim\u2019s father, James (Bill Nighy), the Lake men have the power to travel through time. The catch is, they can only travel through moments of their own life and timeline. (Obviously, this rule will come into play throughout the movie, especially toward the end.)<\/p>\n

\"about_time_xlg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This newfound ability \u2013 which Tim employs by finding dark places like closets, relaxing and then imagining himself when and where he wants to be \u2013 comes in handy when he tries to romance Mary (Rachel McAdams), a lovely American. These two, would-be lovers meet in a \u201cBlack-Out Diner\u201d (trendy restaurants in which patrons are served meals in pitch blackness and singles are sometimes set up on \u201cblind dates\u201d).<\/p>\n

Despite their promising first meeting, Tim fumbles away a second opportunity, only to use his powers to woo and win the Woman of His Dreams. However, he soon discovers that even time traveling can\u2019t fix everything in his sometimes turbulent life, as attempts to meddle in the affairs of his troubled younger sister, Kit Kat (Lydia Wilson), have unfortunate repercussions.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t already seen the film\u2019s overly revealing trailers and ad spots, skip them. They disclose at least one of the bigger plot developments. And curiously, it\u2019s the romance part of the movie that\u2019s a little half-baked and unsatisfying. It\u2019s not completely clear whether that\u2019s because McAdams underplays her role or whether it\u2019s because Curtis neglected it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially glaring when compare that with the scenes depicting the believably appealing, father-son relationship\/dynamic. Curtis really hit on something there, and he\u2019s helped by the Nighy, who appeared in both Love Actually<\/em> and Pirate Radio<\/em>, and again steals scenes, as does another Curtis regular, Tom Hollander, who plays Tim\u2019s roommate, a grumpy and too-sensitive playwright.<\/p>\n

As for the younger Gleeson (at this point, best known to audiences for his role as Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter<\/em> movies), he\u2019s solid but he\u2019s no Hugh Grant, it\u2019s a bit of a stretch. Admittedly, his performance here is full of the nervous tics, stutters and pauses that Grant perfected in a slew of romantic comedy roles. But he\u2019s not got the matinee idol looks and appeal. Not yet anyway.<\/p>\n

Jeff Michael Vice can also be heard reviewing films, television programs, comics, books, music and other things as part of The Geek Show Podcast (<\/i>www.thegeekshowpodcast.com<\/i><\/a>), and can be seen reviewing films as part of Xfinity\u2019s Big Movie Mouth-Off (www.facebook.com\/BigMovieMouthOff).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing we can agree on: Richard Curtis has a lot of ideas, many of which are terrific. As both a screenwriter and a director, Curtis has been responsible for some very, very clever and crowd-pleasing movies. Included in his credits are the hits Four Weddings and a Funeral (he co-wrote that 1994 film\u2019s screenplay) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16],"tags":[400,405,404,407,406,331,270,403,401,402],"yoast_head":"\n'About Time' Gets a Little Lost in Time - Cinephiled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/time-gets-little-lost-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'About Time' Gets a Little Lost in Time - Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One thing we can agree on: Richard Curtis has a lot of ideas, many of which are terrific. 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