About Time

In Brief: This is the closest the Asheville Film Society could come to a movie that's kind of seasonal, since the film's basic holiday connection (New Year's Eve) is tenuous, but no matter. Richard Curtis' About Time — the third (and supposedly final) of Curtis' directorial efforts — is suitable enough, and I don't think anyone will complain. (If you liked his Love Actually, chances are excellent you'll like this.) It's a kind of high-concept affair, owing to its fanciful time-travel premise. It goes like this: the men in Tim’s (Domhnall Gleeson) family can travel backwards in time. They cannot travel forward, and there are limits and stipulations about where they can go and what they can do (one of which we find out fairly late in the proceedings). All they require is a solitary dark space — cupboards are best, lavatories will do — clinched fists and a time. Tim’s dad (the indispensable Bill Nighy) cautions him against such obvious pursuits as making money, pointing out that's what his grandfather did, and it made him miserable. Dad himself uses it to find the time to read (there turns out to be another reason, but that’s the film’s secret, not mine). Tim’s primary interest, it turns out, is love (no big surprise in a Curtis romantic comedy). His interests are not just libidinous, however. He’s looking for that Great Romance. And he’s a genuinely nice guy — his first time trip is to go back to the previous night’s New Year’s Eve party in order to kiss the girl he’s with, rather than hurt her feelings as he awkwardly did the first time. It all plays out with great wit and warmth — and an unusual set of obstacles to the boy-meets-girl mechanics, thanks to the premise.