isn't it about time?

[cosmicna]

: an about time commentary

welcome to my first commentary about a movie mark recommended! i didn’t plan on watching this movie nor did i plan to write a commentary about it before getting into it, but my mind told me to when i was close to finishing it.

i actually knew nothing about this movie before watching it, like i didn’t even know i’d be dealing with time travel… one day i just wanted samyang carbonara and thought, hey, maybe i should watch a movie while eating.

i should stop talking about me and start getting on with the movie.

the romance bits:

tim wanting to get a girlfriend and hoping that time travel would help that “dream” of his was such a man thing to do, to be quite honest. but i’m not threatening him for it, i just think it’s funny.

it’s funny how he tried impressing charlotte only to truly try and talk on the last night, which ended with charlotte saying something about how she wished he hadn’t left it for the last night.

so he travels back in time to tell her earlier. but it ends with her saying he should try again on the last night.

i felt the little heartbreak and i really did like what he said after, well, her not loving him.

“all the time travel in the world can’t make someone love you.

god, do i love that line, because yes! you can never and should never force someone’s feelings. feelings can always be faked but unless you have a change of heart, they’ll stay as just that, fake feelings. you can’t stop someone from falling out of love with you nor make someone fall for you. that’s not how it works.

we live in life. the most real thing we have, essentially, and we should understand that life has its limits and we can’t all have what we want.

sure, tim can change things but he can’t have it all. he can’t stop his dad from dying. he can’t stop his sister from getting hurt. he can’t run away and make his problems disappear. that’s not how life goes.

something i felt kind of iffy with was how he travelled back in time so much for mary and using things she told him as if they just met. how they met was kind of funny, kind of sweet, though. they couldn’t see each other but they got to know each other. it’s sweet how they still met up outside, after the strawberry mousse in her eye and all. that meant they really did like each other.

it was sad how tim couldn’t meet mary that way after he travelled in time to help harry’s play become successful. it’s a shame how helping one friend results in losing the possible love of your life (which, in tim’s case, is actually the love of his life).

i like how he kept restarting the clock, though, in some sense of it. he was desperate to find her. i was iffy with him taking advantage of what mary told him before but like, you would do that too, wouldn’t you? if you finally met someone who actually seemed to like you back?

the way he complimented her fringe and continued to for their next “first meetings” cause he knew she was happy to hear that. the way he brought up kate moss cause he knew she was a fan (though he pretended he was too, but again, wouldn’t you too?) and how he waited at the kate moss exhibit… thing… so he’d have a chance to meet her again! kit kat being there too, i love her.

another favorite thing of mine from this movie was their last “first meeting.” sure, he stole rupert and mary’s supposed meeting but… like what mary said! “dickhead!”

what i love about that meeting, though, is the other thing mary said.

“walk me to my car?”

i thought it was cute she said that,—a bit more time for the two of them—i didn’t know she didn’t actually come to the party with her car. and i think it’s so much cuter that way. walk me to my car being walk me to my flat? cheeky. they didn’t have a bit more time together, though, they had hours, the whole night. and god, even forever.

why it’s not just a romance:

about time isn’t just about love.

it’s about family and friends and working through time travel. the movie started with tim talking about his family. his mom, and how she had “something solid about her. something rectangular, busy and unsentimental.” then there was his dad who was “more normal” and how he’d given up teaching on his fiftieth and how they played table tennis. there was also uncle desmond whose “mind was on other things, though we never found out what.” and of course, kit kat, his sister. “she was then, and still is to me, about the most wonderful thing in the world.”

yes, i took his words right from his mouth. but it’s cause i liked the way he put it. and the next lines too.

how his childhood was “full of repeated rhymes and patterns.” a routine. tea on the beach, skipping stones, friday films. nothing got in the way of those times.

then quickly we’ve got tim’s dad telling him about time travel and tim trying it—it’s real. at this point, we’re heading to the romance.

tim talks about charlotte and then he finds mary. it’s not all romance for this part though. i mentioned it earlier. kit kat was there, waiting with tim when he was finding mary. kit kat’s really sweet (also why i love calling her kit kat) and whilst mary was with tim and tim was with mary, i did slightly wonder about her.

then posy’s birthday. she was late. she’s in the hospital. tim tried stopping it, even went the lengths to stop her from meeting jimmy altogether. but posy.

it was a mess. but with kit kat’s accident, mary and tim really stayed in the hospital. they didn’t leave her alone. they really, really, loved her.

but of course, another problem. their dad. cancer.

it’s sweet how they went back in time together. one last time. before tim and mary’s third child came. on the beach and just, having fun.

all this bit of the story, too, is where tim’s dad tells him his secret to happiness: live each day normally, with all the worries and anxieties the world can bring. then, live through it again, almost the exact same way, knowing how things go and appreciating everything more.

no more redoing everything ‘til it’s perfect. live life like everyone else but twice, the second time noticing the sweetness of the world.

his dad taught him how to stop running away from his problems, i think. the cancer made tim realize he should cherish every moment. no matter how silly or imperfect it is, maybe even painful.

oddity or ordinarity:

now let’s talk time travel.

as i just mentioned, tim’s dad said the key to happiness required him to time travel every day, though reliving it almost the exact same way.

but a bit later in the movie, and a pretty while later in their lives, tim learned the final lesson: don’t travel back in time any more. he says he tries living every day as if he came back to it and as if it was his last.

tim had the power of time travel but ultimately stopped traveling back through time. it conveys a lesson we all should know true. cherish and enjoy every moment.

tim could’ve done almost anything with this gift of his, traveling back again and again as much as he wanted to. but he chose not to anymore. after multiple visits to the past, he chose to just stay in the moment. no rewinds or replays of his days. just ordinarity and not this time-travel oddity.

if we were in his situation, we’d all figure that little lesson out but only after many mistakes. but now, he’s telling it to us straight. live your life normally instead of going back to what has been done. as he said, we are all traveling through time. we’re just traveling through it in the ordinary way.

i think about time makes you understand the precious moments of each passing day and how each of your actions will have consequences. one thing you do has the possibility of changing your whole life, and it is best to not regret your actions. don’t let yourself stay pondering on what could have been. just think of what is. maybe i should learn to do that too.