Overview
A heartfelt journey through love and loss, where time is both a gift and a burden.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Complexity
- Easy to follow
- Violence
- None
- warm
- witty
- wistful
- date night
- rainy day
What critics said
Critics broadly found the film beautifully filmed, sincere, and buoyed by its lead chemistry, while considering its sentimentality, familiar characters, and loose time-travel rules uneven.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Tim repeatedly travels through his own past to meet Mary, revise proposals, repair social mishaps, and improve family events.
Tim's relationship with his father, Mary, Kit Kat, Harry, and his daughter gives the time-travel premise its deepest emotional stakes.
The film moves between the Cornwall coast, London interiors, weddings, and family homes with a gentle, picturesque romantic-comedy sensibility.
Tim's powers are applied to dates, speeches, friendship, traffic, childbirth, and family time instead of large-scale historical intervention.
Films like About Time, and why
The Time Traveler's Wife
shared romantic time travel premise, sincere sentimentality, and relationship-focused fantasy drama
Groundhog Day
shared time-loop structure, romantic comedy tone, and emphasis on personal growth through repeated days
Love Actually
shared Richard Curtis-style British romantic comedy, ensemble warmth, and wistful reflection on love and family
The Lake House
shared fantastical romance, emotional family themes, and bittersweet meditation on mortality
Movie Details
- Director
- Richard Curtis
- Release Date
- 2013-06-27
- Runtime
- 123 min
- Rating
- 7.9 / 10 (9533)
Cast
- Domhnall Gleeson
- Rachel McAdams
- Bill Nighy
- Tom Hollander
- Margot Robbie
- Lydia Wilson
- Lindsay Duncan
- Richard Cordery
- Joshua McGuire
- Will Merrick
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, FlixFling
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is About Time about?
- A young London lawyer uses his family's time-traveling gift to pursue love and learn that a perfect life cannot be engineered away from sorrow.
- What is About Time like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of About Time as brisk, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as easy to follow.
- Is About Time violent?
- No — Ember's analysis finds no violence in About Time.
- What did critics think of About Time?
- Critics broadly found the film beautifully filmed, sincere, and buoyed by its lead chemistry, while considering its sentimentality, familiar characters, and loose time-travel rules uneven.
- Which films are like About Time?
- Films with a similar feel include The Time Traveler's Wife, Groundhog Day, Love Actually, and The Lake House.
- How long is About Time?
- About Time runs 123 minutes.
- Where can I watch About Time?
- In United States, About Time streams on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads.
