When The Time-Travelers Wife came out I hated it. It’s a very dark, very twisted love story. Rachel McAdams starred in it as the poor wife. So when About Time came out I was thrilled. Especially when Rachel McAdams played the wife. 🙂
On Tim’s twenty-first birthday, his father takes him aside and tells him about the rare gift that all of the men in the family have–the ability to go back in time. At first, Tim thinks it’s a joke, but he follows his father’s directions and finds himself back at the dreadful New Year’s Eve Party. Then he’s dumbfounded. Throughout the rest of the film the conversations between Tim and his dad are poignant and thoughtful. They use this gift to make their family happy. In fact one of the first things Tim’s dad tells him is that he used it to go back and read every book he ever wanted to read twice. Near the end he tells him that he’s relived every day twice–first with the usual anxiety when things don’t go as planned and then a second time savoring every moment. This is what has made him a happy man.
So what’s the catch? It’s a big one. If you go back in time past the birth of your child and then forward you will get a different child. Tim learns this painful truth when he goes back in time to stop his sister Kit Kat from getting into a car crash and then returns to the present to find that his daughter Posy has disappeared. In order to get Posy back he has to put the past back the way it was and watch his sister get into that car crash.
This story does have a happy ending and is priceless in learning the value of time and family.
8 out of 10 stars. Romance and family at the same time.
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