About Time (2013)

The other day I had the opportunity to re-watch About Time with my partner, a movie from 2013 that I barely remembered.

Undoubtedly a classic that tells us about love and family in a close and honest way.

In fact, the great twist of the film is how, at first, it seems to be about romantic love but gradually tells a story about family ties and the value of community.

There was one moment in particular that gave me pause for thought:

The protagonist, like his father, can travel back in time and replay moments in which he has been present and change things.

However, after having his first child, he tries to travel to the past to save his sister from a car crash and when he returns he finds that the child is different.

His father tells him that once his child is born, traveling back in time and making any changes will cause his child to be conceived from a different sperm.

Later, the father falls ill with cancer and the son’s partner proposes to have a second child.

The protagonist knows perfectly well what this means: if he has his second child, he will not be able to see his father again in the past, something that comforted him knowing about his illness.

In the end, he decides to have his second child and says goodbye to her father, in the past, spending a childhood day together at the beach.

As I watched the scene, I couldn’t help but think:

Would I be willing to lose my father if I had the opportunity to visit him whenever I wanted?

Then, I remembered one of my father’s most repeated quotes:

“For me, my family is you, your mother and your siblings, someday you will have yours and they will be the only family you care about. This is normal and desirable”.

I think the only reason I didn’t understand the scene or share the protagonist’s decision was that I don’t have my own family.

I also think that, if this situation were to happen, it would be my father who would ask me to let him go, look to the future and have my child.