Sometimes people watch movies at the right time, the perfect time, to consume the film’s message. That is how I feel about the 2013 British romantic comedy, “About Time.”
“About Time” follows Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), who learns on his 21st birthday that the men in his family can time travel, but only into the past and only within their own lives. Without questioning it, Tim promptly decides that he will use his time traveling capabilities to improve his love life.
The movie then follows the whirlwind romance of Tim and Mary (Rachel McAdams). They first meet on an overwhelmingly successful blind date. However, Tim chooses to go back in time to help a friend receive a better review for his play, which erases his date with Mary. He then searches for her again, determined to make her fall back in love with him.
While this may seem creepy, Tim searching in vain for a woman, who does not know him, to convince her to fall for him once more, it isn’t because they already had a successful, real date, in which they were compatible. Simply due to time, and Tim’s decision to help a friend’s career, Tim and Mary have now not met. But, they meet once more, and this time, they stay together.
At the end of the film, Tim reflects on the best advice his father ever gave him.
His father advises him to use his time traveling ability to live every day twice. The first time is to live the day as normal, the second time is to notice the small moments. On the first day, Tim goes through the motions of his mundane, ordinary life as a lawyer, and afterwards, tells Mary that his day was poor overall.
However, when Tim goes through the exact same day a second time, he does so noticing the small things. He makes himself laugh when his job is serious, and he appreciates the presence of other people on the train. After completing the same day a second time, this time paying attention to the beautiful, ordinary moments, he tells Mary that his day was really, quite good.
This scene reminds viewers to notice the little things. Tim’s father’s advice encourages people to find beauty in the miniscule and greatness in the ordinary, to notice the small details that can make a bad day into one worth remembering.
This film also reminds viewers that life isn’t all that serious, and shouldn’t be. After a downpour ruins Tim and Mary’s wedding, Tim asks Mary if she would pick a different day to do their wedding if she could, to which Mary replies that she wouldn’t trade their unique, wet wedding day for anything. Things may not always go as planned, and sometimes life takes a silly turn, but that is how life should be.
The movie’s strongest message comes at the end, when Tim reflects on his lovely life. He says, “The truth is I now don’t travel back at all, not even for the day. I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.”
Although he has the ability to travel back in time and relive moments of his past, Tim no longer wants to. Instead, he has found himself far more content with living in the moment, no matter how mundane the moments may be. He settles for finding joy in his silly, miniscule life because at least it is his silly, miniscule life to live with Mary and their children.
Tim does not seek wealth, he does not seek fame, he does not seek to gain power through his time travel abilities. Instead, he uses them to be content and appreciate his very ordinary life. Too often, people take the ordinary for granted, not stopping to think about how the small things add up.
As Tim determines, it is the ordinary things that add up to make life truly extraordinary and worth remembering. This movie is about growing up, falling in love and living ordinary life to the fullest and hopefully will make you re-examine your life for the better, this time recognizing the little things that make your life wonderful.