Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield shine

Among today's young acting talents, few possess the enviable combination of depth and charisma shared by Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, who exploit these considerable strengths as a contemporary British couple facing a medical crisis in John Crowley's deeply introspective film. We live in time.

Having made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Crowley's 2019 drama, The Goldfinchless enthusiastically received, the film eschews a traditional, linear approach to its subject matter in favor of a looser construction that weaves together a vivid mosaic of time periods and memories to deeply moving effect.

For thematic inspiration, Crowley draws on Lou Reed's song “Magic and Loss (The Summation),” and in particular the lyrics, “There's a little magic in everything and then a little loss to balance it out,” in navigating the relationship between the passionate and ambitious Almut (Pugh) and the sensitive and caring Tobias (Garfield).

Having met in their 30s as fully formed individuals with distinct pasts and a clear sense of their own wants and needs, Almut and Tobias proceed to settle down in South London’s leafy Herne Hill. She is the chef of her own restaurant and he, still in the throes of divorce, is the corporate marketing face of Weetabix cereal.

Despite having different views on raising a family (he is impatient, she is indecisive), they eventually end up having a daughter, Ella (Grace Delaney), after some difficulty getting pregnant, and seem to be living an idyllic life when Almut receives a devastating diagnosis: a recurrence of ovarian cancer.

Rather than taking a conventional “where do we go from here?” approach, playwright Nick Payne’s unique script is more interested in “how did we get here?” The film splits their story into three distinct time periods of varying lengths and stitches them together in more interesting ways than the usual chronological order. The approach allows for a variety of adorable/surprising/funny moments, from Tobias having the back of his head tenderly slashed by his doting dad (Douglas Hodge) to Almut lying in a bathtub, balancing a cookie on her very pregnant belly to – in one of the film’s most daringly choreographed sequences – giving birth in a gas station bathroom.

It’s all recorded immersively by cinematographer Stuart Bentley, who penetratingly captures the defining moments of the couple’s decades-long relationship without ever being intrusive. Frankly, Bentley wouldn’t have been asked to do much more than simply point and shoot, with the generosity of those wonderfully honest performances provided by Crowley’s two highly accomplished leads.

There’s a playful, painfully palpable chemistry between Pugh and Garfield that leaps off the screen. But they also refuse to shy away from their characters’ less appealing qualities. Beneath Tobias’s soulful eyes is a streak of passive aggression that isn’t his best asset. Meanwhile, Almut’s silky, smoky voice fails to hide the aching frustration her illness is causing her when she insists on entering a prestigious international cooking competition despite her deteriorating condition and her husband’s concerns, protesting, “I don’t want my relationship with Ella to be defined by my decline.”

When that decline finally leads to something tragically inevitable and time returns to its chronological default, Crowley takes his leave with the same tender but sincere touch that informs the entire production. While We live in time and its subject matter may not vindicate the audience elevation of Crowley's Oscar-nominated film BrooklynRarely has such a sincere and honest interpretation of mortality been so transcendentally life-affirming.