About Time: CALL Discussion Notes

After another bad New Year’s Eve party, 21-year old Tim (Domhnail Gleeson) is informed by his father (Bill Nighy) that their family’s male line has always been able to move back in time. They can’t change history but they can alter their own life. Tim moves from Cornwall to London to train as a lawyer. He meets the insecure Mary (Rachel McAdams), they fall in love, but their meeting is erased when he travels back to save his playwright landlord’s opening night. Tim manages to meet her again, using his time travel to make things work out. They wed, have children, save his wayward sister Kit Kat’s life, and get through Tim’s father’s death. The lessons Tim’s father taught him lead to a happy ending. Because of some complicated quirk Tim’s posthumous visits to his dad end when Tim agrees to have a third child. 

Consider the following questions:

     For what is time travel here perhaps a metaphor? Otherwise, why would we bother watching a film about time travel when presumably some of us can’t do it? What’s the film’s message (delivered  by the character who introduces the time travel, of course)?
     The film plays out our not uncommon desire to be able to "take back" or redo our failing or error or embarrassment. Does the film show how we might succeed without that skill?

     Rory reads a book called Trash, which is the title of director Richard Curtis’s next script and film. So?  Might he identify with Rory in some way?

     How does the film relate to other films Curtis directed (Love Actually, Pirate Radio) or produced (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Mr Bean’s Holiday) or wrote (two Bridget Jones films, after TV shows as Blackadder, Mr Bean, Spitting Image, Not the Nine O’Clock News)?

     In 2008 the Telegraph named Curtis #12 on its list of “the 100 most powerful people in Bitish Culture.” Really? That was just post-Bean/Bridget.

     The Calgary Herald dismissed this film as “an entertaining whimsy with no real point except to watch an expert cast at work.” Is this really a“whimsy”? Can whimsey carry weight?

     How do errors and timing mess up the other characters? e.g., totally undercooked hotdogs, Rory saying his name is Roger, Kit Kat falling for the wrong guy, Harry missing his ex-wife who was sarcastic but the best person who ever lived, Charlotte’s blessedness.

     How does Charlotte relate to the film’s themes? Note she plays tennis in slow motion.

     What are the contrasts/connections between the two most striking fringe characters, Uncle Desmond and playwright Harry? 

     What thematic functions are served by the lovers first meeting in a darkened restaurant, with blind waiters?

     Why let the wedding continue through the monsoon but correct the bad best man speeches?

What might these quotes signify:

     All the time traveling in the world can’t make someone love you.

     I’ve never run into a genuinely happy rich person.

     I’m going to go into the bedroom and put on my new pyjamas, and in a minute you can come in and take them off if you want to.

     I can’t kill Hitler or shag Helen of Troy unfortunately. (Hint: In Britain shag is not a carpet.)

     “It’s just a flesh wound.” (cp Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

     Don’ t call too often. Your mother doesn’t like to be disturbed.

     Kate Moss’s magic lies in her history.

     Some people make a mess of it the first time.

     I’m so good without the ball.

     If it’s got to be fixed maybe she has to fix it herself.

     Life is a mixed bag.

     You finally got good.

     The songs: — “How long will I love you?” — “I don’t believe in an interventionist god.” — “I don’t get many things right the first time.”

     We are all travelling through time together…. All we can do is do our best and relish our remarkable ride.

     The film’s last words: “See you later.”