Movie review: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh make sure tears fall in 'We Live in Time'

Remember when “This is Us” futzed with time and we never knew quite when the action was taking place?

That’s “We Live in Time,” a depressing romance that brings a couple together when she hits him with her car (shades of “Colin from Accounts”). Before you know it, she’s dealing with cancer, he’s raising their child, she’s writhing on the floor of a gas station, he’s cheering her on at a chefs’ competition.

There’s a lot to unpack, largely because director John Crowley realizes this isn’t going to be another crowd-pleasing rom-com.

Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh make a handsome couple, particularly when they’re sharing happier moments. They don’t seem to have a lot of outside friends, but they’re fine with each other and then she gets the bad news about cancer, her ability to bear children, the return of cancer and that big cooking competition.

Garfield, meanwhile, is as supportive as a husband can get. He races down a tunnel to get medical help, serves as her birthing coach in the gas station bathroom and accepts the decisions she makes about her life. It all seems very progressive, but when you straighten the time shifts, you realize it’s as simple as “Love Story.”

What’s interesting is how Garfield and Pugh interact. She’s always taking the lead, he’s following. When he finally blows (over a decision she makes without consulting him), it’s a little too late for this to level up. When she’s in the big Bocuse d’Or cooking competition, he and their daughter are in the stands, cheering her on.

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A friendship with her junior chef (expertly played by Lee Braithwaite) might have been explored a bit more to open this up to allay the claustrophobia. Moments in the heat of competition are great diversions and just what Crowley needs to avoid huge waterworks in the end.

Tears still fall, but they’re prompted by that flurry of bad news.

When Pugh’s character returns to an ice-skating rink, another storyline emerges and, in ways, undercuts what has already been seeded. Oblivious to her former life, Garfield doesn’t ask a lot of questions but sees that rink as a place where memories – good memories – could be made. Here, a hint of “Ice Castles” seeps in making you wonder if there’s a whole world of stories that will never get told.

While Crowley is fine with showing the bad – and worse – moments Pugh’s character faces, he doesn’t really do much with Garfield’s. Frequently, he’s left to well up and stand by.

That serves the premise, but it also leaves the audience with a hollow feeling. “We Live in Time” is a gut punch to everyone who wants a “happily ever after” but can’t quite get to the happily.