We Live in Time (2024) review

Distraught over his pending divorce, Weetabix employee Tobias Durand (Andrew Garfield) is hit by a car driven by professional chef (and former figure skater) Almut Brühl (Florence Pugh) on the way back to his hotel room after running an errand, they start dating, get married, have a child and eventually Almut's diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer ... except their story is not told in that order.  Casting two dynamic talents as your leads is something of a cheat code - Pugh is a generational talent - and they do have chemistry together, but in presenting it in a non-linear fashion (and leaning heavily on Almut's deteriorating physical condition) it severely undermines itself: following the movie's most harrowing sequence, in which Almut gives birth to their daughter in a gas station bathroom, it immediately follows it up with the main characters in a doctor's office years later receiving terrible news about how the chemotherapy isn't working.  Did director Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne genuinely believe that showing events in this manner would make the film more poignant?  Were they both concerned if they showed it in a straightforward way it would be too "ordinary?"  Or was the primary intent to act as bait for awards season?