The prerogatives of the romantic tragedy get a solid workout in this over-ambitious tale of a young heterosexual couple trying to have a child as the female partner struggles with cancer. The first thing that points up director John Crowley’s determination to make this weepie significant is the way he presents the timeline out of sequence, a not particularly original idea and one that effectively blunts the more melodramatic elements of the script. Perhaps that was his intention, but as a result the movie can’t quite work up sufficient emotional momentum. The story as it’s styled lacks surprises. 

Nevertheless, there is real chemistry between the principals, Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield). When they meet, the latter is just finishing up divorce proceedings with his first wife, a matter that I would have liked to know more about because Tobias seems awfully young to be exiting a failed marriage. Almut is already a celebrated chef-in-the-making in London, while Tobias shuffles about as a breakfast cereal salesman; a contrast that Crowley also handles maladroitly. Though it would be patronizing to call Almut some kind of superwoman, she definitely has it all over Tobias in terms of drive, talent, and common sense. The point seems to be that she loves him for the earnest everyman he comes across as, because she tends to deal with high flyers in her professional life. Moreover, she gave up a promising career as a competitive figure skater for cooking, which she says she loves more. Tobias, on the other hand, exists in a constant funk of under-achievement and can barely express his feelings. Crowley emphasizes this divide with standalone episodes that are narratively brilliant but dramatically redundant: Almut taking part in a televised cooking competition while suffering the acute ravages of chemotherapy; Almut giving birth in a dirty gas station because on the way to the hospital they get stuck in traffic; Tobias crashing Almut’s baby shower to apologize profusely for a recent faux pas. In the end, you wonder how much Tobias is really holding Almut back, even as she trusts him to raise their daughter alone in the event that she succumbs to her ongoing illness.

I suppose that’s an irony designed to deepen the tragedy and the love story, but due to the out-of-sequence exposition it never makes a distinct impression. You invariably react to such gambits intellectually rather than sentimentally, and though I’m always suspicious of sentiment for its own sake, you can’t appreciate a story like this without falling victim to it.

Opens June 6 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Kino Cinema Shinjuku (03-5315-0978), Shibuya Parco White Cine Quinto (03-6712-7225), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

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photo (c) 2024 Studiocanal SAS-Channel Four Television Corporation