About Time was not the cheesy romance flick that I had perceived it to be; it was funny, clever, and heartfelt, and leaves a poignant resonance behind.

The premise behind the film is that Tim, played by Domhnall Gleason, discovers that he and every other male in his family possess the ability to travel back in time of their own past up to the point of their 21st birthday. He decides that his main focus of using this gift is to find a girlfriend, as opposed to money and fortune being his sole objective. He finds Mary, played by Rachel McAdams, and after a string of awkward introductions, Tim finds his bearings and is able to get his abrupt unwieldiness under check.

With any movie that uses time travel to move a plot, there is the potential of losing cohesiveness. This movie does well to keep the focus only on Tim’s immediate happenings, which even though at times beckons some questions about morale, allows the more important theme to blossom as Tim(e) adhesively matures.

This movie is also about the development of the characters around Tim; for example, his father, played by Bill Nighy, and his hippy sister, played by Lydia Wilson.

I would not constitute this movie as being entirely about love, but more so about exploration of critical life themes, as much of this film hinges upon Tim’s decisions towards his family members as each has his or her own despairing struggle.

Putting aside how, at times, there is a lack of friction as Tim seems to be unchallenged, using his time-travel device to constantly nip every struggle in the bud. Tim actually learns that he would rather live his life from day to future day, even when he could go back to change his regrets. About Time is not only about time, but a call for human appreciation of the facets of life.