Let's be real. Most time travel movies are basically just physics homework with a bigger budget. You spend half the runtime trying to figure out why the protagonist's hand is disappearing because they accidentally stopped their parents from meeting at a high school dance. It’s stressful. But then there’s Cuestión de tiempo, or About Time if you’re watching it in English, which tosses the paradoxes out the window to focus on something way more terrifying: the fact that even if you could redo every single day, you still can't make someone love you, and you definitely can't stop people from dying.
Richard Curtis, the guy who gave us Love Actually and Notting Hill, did something kinda sneaky here. He marketed this as a rom-com. The posters had Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams looking cute under an umbrella. People went into theaters expecting a lighthearted flick about a guy using superpowers to get a girlfriend. What they actually got was a devastatingly beautiful meditation on grief, fatherhood, and the crushing realization that life is only special because it ends.
The rules of Cuestión de tiempo are refreshingly simple
Forget flux capacitors. In this world, the men in Tim’s family just have to go into a dark cupboard, clench their fists, and think of a specific moment they’ve already lived. That’s it. Tim’s dad, played by the legend Bill Nighy with a sort of chaotic, tea-drinking energy, explains the rules early on. You can’t go to the future. You can’t kill Hitler. You can only change your own life.
Honestly, it’s the most "British" take on sci-fi ever.
Most movies use time travel to save the world. Tim uses it to make sure he doesn't look like an idiot at a New Year's Eve party. It’s relatable because, let's face it, if most of us discovered we could travel through time, we wouldn't be trying to solve the JFK assassination. We’d be redoing that one awkward conversation we had with our crush three years ago.
Why Mary and Tim's relationship works (and why it’s kinda creepy)
There is a big elephant in the room when people talk about Cuestión de tiempo. Tim basically gaslights Mary. He meets her at a "blind" restaurant (Dans Le Noir, a real place in London, by the way), they have a perfect connection, but then Tim travels back in time to help a friend, which inadvertently erases the meeting with Mary.
He then has to stalk her—there's no other word for it—to win her back.
He finds out she likes Kate Moss. He finds out where she’s going to be. He scripts his way into her life. In any other movie, this would be the plot of a psychological thriller. But because it’s Domhnall Gleeson and he looks like a confused ginger puppy, we go along with it. The film gets away with it because the chemistry between Gleeson and McAdams feels organic, even if the foundation is built on Tim’s "save game" cheats.
What’s interesting is that the movie eventually moves past the romance. The second half of the film isn't about the girl at all. It’s about the family. It’s about Kit Kat, Tim’s sister, and the realization that you can’t use time travel to "fix" other people. You can only fix yourself.
The moment Cuestión de tiempo breaks your heart
There is a specific scene involving a walk on a beach. If you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Tim learns the ultimate "Formula for Happiness" from his father. Step one: live life normally. Step two: live every day again, almost exactly the same, but notice the beauty you missed the first time because you were too stressed or tired. It’s a lovely sentiment. It’s the kind of thing you see on inspirational posters in a dentist's office.
But then comes the cost.
The movie introduces a rule that is absolutely brutal: if you travel back to a time before your child was born, the "butterfly effect" means you’ll return to a different child. A different sperm, a different egg, a different soul. This is the pivot point where Cuestión de tiempo stops being a comedy. Tim has to choose between seeing his dying father one last time and preserving the existence of his own daughter.
It’s a heavy choice for a movie that started with a joke about a guy not being able to find a condom.
The Richard Curtis touch and the London vibe
The film is a love letter to a very specific version of London and Cornwall. It’s a world of messy kitchens, oversized sweaters, and constant rain. Curtis has a habit of romanticizing the UK, but here it feels grounded. The wedding scene, where a literal hurricane ruins the ceremony, is peak cinema. Most directors would make that a "disaster" moment. In this movie, it’s the best day of their lives because everyone is laughing through the chaos.
Critics back in 2013 were actually kinda split on this. Some found it too sentimental. The Guardian called it a "sentimentalized fantasy." But audiences didn't care. It has maintained a staggering 8.1 rating on IMDb and a massive cult following because it taps into a universal anxiety: the feeling that time is slipping through our fingers.
What most people miss about the ending
The ending of Cuestión de tiempo isn't about time travel at all. It’s about the retirement of the gift. Tim decides to stop traveling. He realizes that the real trick is to live life as if you've already come back from the future to enjoy it.
Think about that for a second.
If you lived today—this exact Tuesday or Thursday or whatever day it is—knowing you had traveled back from twenty years in the future just to experience it one more time, how would you treat the person at the grocery store? How would you react to a traffic jam? You’d probably find it all kind of wonderful. That’s the "actionable insight" buried under the sci-fi premise.
Real-world impact and the McAdams "Time Travel" Curse
Funny side note: Rachel McAdams is the unofficial queen of being the "Time Traveler’s Wife." She’s been in The Time Traveler’s Wife, Midnight in Paris, and Cuestión de tiempo. She’s never the one traveling, she’s just the one waiting at home while her husband disappears into a closet or a vintage car.
But out of all those films, this one feels the most human. It’s not about the mechanics of the universe. It’s about the mechanics of a Tuesday afternoon.
How to actually apply the "About Time" philosophy today
You don't need a dark cupboard or a family secret to get the benefits of what Tim learned. The movie basically suggests a form of radical mindfulness that actually works in the real world.
- The "Double Day" Mental Hack: Tonight, before you go to sleep, replay your day in your head. Identify one moment where you were stressed—maybe a work email or a spill in the kitchen. Now, imagine you are the "future version" of yourself who traveled back just to see that moment. Suddenly, the stress feels small, and the fact that you’re alive to experience it feels like a win.
- The "Kit Kat" Rule: You cannot fix the people you love. You can only be there for them. Tim tried to go back and prevent his sister's accident, but it changed his own kids. The lesson? Support the people in your life in the now, rather than wishing you could change their past.
- The Final Secret: Watch the movie again, but ignore the plot. Look at the background characters. Look at the way Bill Nighy interacts with the waves on the beach. The movie is telling you that the "extras" in your life are actually the main characters of their own stories.
Cuestión de tiempo isn't a movie about a guy who can change his life. It’s a movie about a guy who realizes his life was already perfect, he just wasn't paying attention. If you're looking for a film that will make you want to call your parents and hug your kids, this is the one. Just make sure you have a box of tissues ready for the beach scene. Seriously. You’ll need them.
To get the most out of the film's message, try this: tomorrow morning, don't check your phone for the first ten minutes. Just look at the light in your room. Imagine you’ve traveled back from the year 2050 just to see that specific light one more time. It changes everything.