Review of About Time

About Time (I) (2013)
3/10
The hypocrtical speech at the end ruins a good movie
20 April 2020
This movie ruins itself in the last new minutes. I don't think it's a spoiler to say this movie is about a guy that can time travel. Even in the trailer we see him using it to pick up the girl of is dreams. Every time he makes a mistake with her he resets time to fix the mistake until it's the perfect date (this is shown in the trailer). In other words he has a power many of us wish we could have as well. But, in the last 2-3 minutes he gives a speech to the audience that he no longer time travels and just enjoys each moment as it comes. We're supposed to feel "awe, wisdom". Except he got to this nice situation he's in with the wife of his dreams precisely because he had these powers. If he didn't have them he'd not be in his idillic marriage we see him in as he gives this speech. That is such a spit in the face right at the end that hey, I used my powers to get my perfect relationship but you should just be happy with what you have. That's like a rich person telling a poor person money isn't everything. Sure, it's not, but if you're rich telling a poor person she doesn't need money try going without. In the end we get a rage inducing lecture from a person of privilege telling us to ignore the privilege.

To be more concrete. Hr loses the girl because he makes a choice to help a friend. He then uses his special ability to get her back. For the rest of us we would not get that chance to fix our mistakes. That's all fine and without the speech at the end it would have been just a great movie about a guy with special talents and the ways he uses them. But, instead at the end he punches us in the face where he effectively says "live with your mistakes even though I'm living a life only possible because I had the ability to fix mine"
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