Chethma De Mel, Jadetimes Staff
C. J. De Mel is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Entertainment News
While most A-list celebrities have stridden across London Film Festival's red carpets, it fell to Andrew Garfield to attend the premiere of We Live In Time solo on Thursday evening. His co-star Florence Pugh couldn't be there since she's shooting another movie. Garfield took a cardboard cutout of Pugh along, though, and made her absence at least a bit funnier.
We Live In Time stars Pugh as a young chef diagnosed with cancer, with Garfield playing her partner and the father of their three-year-old daughter. Filmed last spring-which accounted for Pugh's shocking shaved-head look at the 2023 Met Gala that made all those fashion headlines-movie insiders say the romance is cute.
But despite the weighty subject matter, the film has been praised as a rare example of a life-affirming movie that deals with such heavy themes, although some critics have coined it "twee." Garfield plays Tobias, a Weetabix marketing executive who is going through the opaque procedures involved with a divorce when he is accidentally run over by Pugh's character Almut. The two eventually fall in love, but their future is threatened when Almut's cancer returns.
This is Garfield's first film with Crowley in 17 years, since the critical breakthrough of Boy A helped establish Garfield's career. In London, he also made a premiere red carpet appearance toting a cardboard cut-out of Pugh's face, bringing an edge of playfulness to the affair.
Despite moving performances, We Live In Time has received rather lukewarm reviews since its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter referred to Crowley's sensitive direction as "an honest take on mortality," while others, such as Mashable's Kirsty Puchko, are less impressed. She described it as the "biggest cinema disappointment of the year," criticizing the shallowness in the depth of the characters and calling it a "soggy handshake of a film."
Others, such as MovieFreak's Sara Michelle Fetters, were far warmer with the film, citing solid performances by Garfield and Pugh. Similarly, The Guardian's Benjamin Lee made sure to praise the movie, wherein the duo balanced comic and dramatic beats with natural ease. One of the more emotional scenes involves Tobias taking their daughter to shave Almut's head, which proved an important scene both in the film and in real life since it used actual hair from Pugh.
Speaking with British Vogue, Pugh described the deeper meaning in the scene of her head shaving, pointing out the importance of fully surrendering to the character. Garfield jokingly spoke about his shoot nerves, not wanting to "ruin the head of one of the best actors of her generation."
Pugh says at 28, the themes leading into this film have resonated with her while she goes through personal challenges in life. The Little Women, Midsommar, Oppenheimer, and Black Widow actress says the message of the film about living life fully and never passively is one that has hit a chord.
Also a veteran actor, credits including The Social Network, Hacksaw Ridge, Spider-Man, and Tick, Tick. Boom!, Garfield puts on another fantastic performance in We Live In Time, further sealing his status as such a talented versatile actor.
