There are endearing, intelligent and forthright performances here from Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, who have a tender chemistry in this sensitive if, for me, contrived romantic drama from screenwriter Nick Payne and director John Crowley. It has won golden opinions and I wished I liked it more, having found it supremely watchable while not quite believing in any of it for a single moment.
You might call it One Day on shuffle; we see a relationship of two thirtysomethings with episodes in their lives shown out of order, though not exactly at random – the final scene is still its narrative climax. It shows the joys and heartaches of Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh) and their infant daughter Ella (Grace Delaney). Tobias is a good-tempered guy who’s an executive at the Weetabix breakfast cereal corporation; after some humorous establishing scenes, his quirky-ordinary job is pretty much forgotten about. The more important career is unquestionably Almut’s. She is a brilliant chef and restaurateur (and former ice-skating champ) specialising in Anglo-Bavarian fusion cuisine; her dedication to the job causing complicated feelings about parenthood. A terrible crisis and a fundamental, existential choice mean that they have to look hard at their lives and what their love for each other means.
