What if it were possible to time travel? There would be so many things about one’s life from the past that one would like to change. However, time travel is the stuff of science fiction. Who knows, in the future, one might be able to time travel. What if one led one’s life in a way that demanded no change. Would then one need to time travel? Such perfection would be in the realm of fantasy.
These two thoughts are portrayed in About Time. Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) is informed through his dad (Bill Nighy) that he has the power to time travel. He uses this throughout the movie to go back to the past and change certain things. Tim goes back similarly and does things differently. Clearly, according to what is portrayed, if one did things differently, then the outcome also would be different from the original outcome. So this is what happens with Tim.
Tim time travels to find his true love, Mary (Rachel McAdams) and also to help his dad’s friend but his own sister in vain. However, time travel does not always help Tim as he realises in the movie. It is best used sparingly, and he must not depend on it.
It is about each day doing things to the best of one’s ability. Then even if one were given an opportunity to time travel, one would not want to do it since one has led his life one day at a time doing the best one can. In About Time, time travel is used luxuriously, and the viewer sees Tim making many trips back in time to alter the way he has done things in his life. The story has a moral. Do not use time travel as a means of rectifying what one has done inappropriately in the past. Rather, one should live one’s life in the present in such manner that one does not need to time travel to change anything about it from the past.
Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams play their parts perfectly. The movie is hilarious as the viewer gets to see the erroneous results of time travel in Tim’s life. There are lovely songs that play in the background off and on throughout the movie. This is a movie that one can easily watch a second time and still find it amusing. Go watch it!
What do you think?