About Time
Universal Pictures | Release Date: November 1, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 31, 2013
The movie moves episodically, leisurely, through roughly a decade, and that feels like a gift: to nestle in with these extraordinary, ordinary people and get to know them. Read full review
85
NPRJoel ArnoldNov 1, 2013
About Time is ... about time: It asks us to reflect on how we all use that resource, how the hours and minutes that make up a day or a life align with our intentions and values. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 8, 2013
Maybe it's a touch twee, but Curtis' film is far too uplifting, too life-affirming and too good-natured to do anything but embrace. Read full review
80
EmpireMark DinningSep 2, 2013
More than just a time-travel rom-com, this is a movie that asks you questions and doesn’t sugar-coat as many of the answers as you’d expect. Smart and sweet, funny and genuinely moving. Should probably come with a ‘there’s something in my eye’ warning. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 1, 2013
What results is amusing, gently entertaining and might induce a tear or two. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithOct 31, 2013
For all its glutinous cuteness, damn if About Time doesn’t sneak up and sock you in the tear ducts. I tried not to fall for it. I failed. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubOct 31, 2013
The self-consciousness that made the director's "Love Actually" a love-it-or-hate-it film is dialed way down. About Time is more of a love-it-or-like-it proposition. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 31, 2013
Enjoy the love in your life, and don't squander it: That's all Curtis is selling here, really. With Gleeson and McAdams at the forefront, About Time has a beguiling pair of rom-com miracle workers helping him close the sale. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanOct 30, 2013
Gleeson and McAdams make a touching, lifelike couple, but by the time the movie starts telling us to live each day as if we were going back and doing it all over again, you may feel Curtis has mistaken hokum for wisdom. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 29, 2013
A most romantic way to spend your time at the movies this fall, a “date picture” about do over dates that works, this time around. Read full review
70
The DissolveGenevieve KoskiOct 29, 2013
That messy sprawl makes for a messy film full of highs and lows, triumphs and regrets... But those willing—or eager—to indulge About Time’s schmaltziest moments are rewarded with hits of pure, uncut joy and sorrow. Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie FelperinAug 8, 2013
Curtis ends up making a virtue out of the narrative’s episodic quality, a tendency that’s been criticized in his previous work; the film, like life, is just one damn thing after another, and that’s really the rather lovely point. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 30, 2013
The movie is written and directed by the British filmmaker Richard Curtis, who specializes in fantasies — the dozen intersecting rom-coms of "Love Actually" the fairy-tale courtship of "Notting Hill", the endless receptions of "Four Weddings And A Funeral." At a glance, About Time appears to be of a piece with those crowd-pleasers. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 7, 2013
There’s a lot of comic and fantasy potential here, but much of it gets squandered. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaNov 1, 2013
That the stars of the show are none other than the esteemed Richard Griffiths and Richard E. Grant in invaluable cameo roles and that they end up provoking some of the biggest laughs of the movie demonstrates why Curtis is a comedy genius. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramOct 31, 2013
Everyone involved is far too talented to mess this up too badly, but it soon becomes clear that Curtis intends to reduce us to quivering sobs mixed with heartfelt gratitude for every blessed day of life. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleOct 31, 2013
Curtis pulls off some amusing moments, and he has a secret weapon: Nighy, who is so jolly and funny you wish he’d had more screen time. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris CabinSep 25, 2013
A surprisingly thoughtful romantic comedy that shirks a great deal of reason and consequence in the name of love. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 31, 2013
It’s not as good, nor as involving, as “Love Actually.” But like that film, it has Bill Nighy, and that’s good for something. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 15, 2013
About Time is itself a film less directed than quilted: it’s a feathery old patchwork under which you might snuggle at the end of a tiring week. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonAug 9, 2013
There are just enough laugh-out-loud moments here to excuse the lurches into shameless, tear-jerking sentimentality. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 1, 2013
There’s a creepy subtext to all this, especially when Tim uses his time-travel gifts to woo an American girl without her assent. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 6, 2013
With more attention to detail, this could have worked, but the time travel aspects are so badly executed that the movie as a whole falters and eventually rips apart at the seams. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 31, 2013
There are the usual gaggle of embarrassing friends, a lot of voice-over and montages, a wedding, a funeral and wait … something’s missing. Oh, right. Hugh Grant. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 31, 2013
I’m being deliberately mean about a plot device that Curtis wants to come off as a goofy, harmless comic metaphor, but the idea that this implausible inherited trait is actually a cryptic, creepazoid form of domination over women is right there in the movie. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 31, 2013
Like a doggie in a window, this romcom relentlessly wags its tail so you'll fall in love and take it home. Not this time, puppy. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 28, 2013
About Time is like a sermon that starts with a few good jokes and ends with tremulous exhortations to live, live. Read full review
50
Film.comJordan HoffmanOct 28, 2013
Then Bill Nighy shows up and is awesome and punches you in the heart. It ultimately feels like a cheat, and while there won’t be a dry eye in the house, it won’t be earned. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 31, 2013
What makes the calculated sentimentality palatable is Curtis’ intelligent assurance as he guides us through each step. It’s a gooey indulgence, to be sure, but one that will please anybody with a cinematic sweet tooth. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 29, 2013
In a word: Ugh. Read full review
40
The GuardianCatherine ShoardAug 9, 2013
Curtis's heart is in the right place. In fact, it's all over the place – front and centre and backlighting the whole thing with a benevolent glow. But it is hard not to watch this, read the news that it will probably be his last as a director, and look to the future. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 6, 2013
What Rachel McAdams is doing in this nonsense is anyone's guess, but she must realize that the long journey from "Mean Girls" to Mary, with her mousy bangs and her timid pleas counts as a serious descent. [11 Nov. 2013, p.90]
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 31, 2013
A flimsy bit of mildly romantic, putatively comic Anglophile bait. Read full review
25
The PlaylistGabe ToroSep 24, 2013
About Time, inadvertently, reveals itself to be About Men, and how they devise lies in order to create the illusion that all women supposedly want to see. Read full review
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