Born in Wellington, New Zealand and lived in several countries during his childhood, Richard Curtis finally resided in the UK and is known as one of the most successful directors of romantic comedy movies, many of which leave us fond memories, like Love Actually, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Yesterday.
His film “About Time” may not be at the top of the list when you go to the movie. The storyline is as simple as another time-travelling story. The plot is also cut to the chase about an ordinary young man looking for love and happiness. When he learned from his father that he could time travel, he attempted to go back in time to reverse his “actions” to impress the girl he just met. He was kind with a good heart and he tried to help his roommate in his theatre debut. Applause to the great success eventually!
Sadly, the girl he loved was gone because of what he had changed. Life has many paths. They are intertwined. Redirection of a path leading to a series of life changes. We then saw this young man very focused on chasing this girl no matter how many hurdles he went through. So happy to see they crossed paths again and became a couple. Despite the temptation from another beauty, he was not shaken with his goal, instead, he proposed to his love and built a family.
His newborn daughter was so pretty like his wife, so adorable that let you forget the trouble in life. He was so joyous and content with the new life. In this journey, he connected with his father more, especially when unfortunate news came. His father got cancer.
The father and son had a heart-to-heart talk. “We’re all travelling through time together, every day of our lives. All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable ride.”
His dad told him his secret formula for happiness – get on with ordinary life, living it day by day, like anyone else; and live every day again almost exactly the same. The first time with all the tensions and worries that stop us from noticing how sweet the world can be, but the second time noticing.
He went one step further by not travelling back at all and trying to live every day as if I’d deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of an extraordinary, ordinary life.
There were a lot of remarkable quotes that relate to enjoying life. The scripts were wittily written with a sense of humour.
I share some of the quotes below and feel free to check out more.
“He says worrying about the future is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life will always be things that never crossed your worried mind.”
“I always knew we were a fairly odd family. First, there was me. Too tall, too skinny, too orange. My mum was lovely, but not like other mums. There was something solid about her. Something rectangular, busy and unsentimental. Her fashion icon was the queen. Dad, well, he was more normal. He always seemed to have time on his hands… All in all, it was a pretty good childhood.”
Bill Nighy played the dad role. He is subtle, very British and was excellent in his acts. The son was tall, and skinny with orange hair. Nothing extraordinary. His life was not an excitement. He had friends who were not that smart, too. But he was kind with an open heart. That made the movie more sweet as people could resonate with the storyline more.
Time travelling can be a good trick, but it proves that living an ordinary life is not a bad thing if you learn to enjoy the moment.
experience today 