Review by Pamela Zoslov
My favorite scene in Mike Leigh's TOPSY-TURVY, about the collaboration of William Gilbert and
Arthur Sullivan, has theater impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte
complaining about the sameness of G&S's operettas, each of which
has turned on some supernatural device — a magic coil here, a magic
lozenge there. The next show, Gilbert, insists, will be completely
different. “In this instance,” says he, “it is a magic potion.”
I am reminded of this by ABOUT TIME,
the new movie by Richard Curtis. The British writer and director is
best known for export-ready romantic comedies like FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, LOVE, ACTUALLY and NOTTING HILL, full of hugs and
celebrations and happy endings. Like its predecessors, ABOUT TIME is
about the bumpy search for romantic love. But in this instance, it is
the magic potion of time travel. Curtis has poured his old wine into
a new, science-fiction bottle. (New to Curtis, anyway; there have
been hundreds of time-travel movies, three of which, including
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, THE TIME-TRAVELLER'S WIFE, and this one, feature
Rachel McAdams.)
