Blog 5, Option 1

About Time 

I recently watched the movie, About Time, with my friend for a girl’s night in. I knowingly knew that the lead was not a female, but I thought that I could still write my blog about this movie because of how the women in this movie were portrayed.

            About Time is about a young man named Tim who finds out after his twenty-first birthday that he can travel back in time and fix events. All Tim wants is to find love and a woman to spend his life with. The movie goes on to show events where he travels back in time and fixes situations. For example, he meets the woman of his dreams, but in order to fix something else that has happened, he loses meeting this woman. So, once again he uses his powers to meet her again in a different setting. Eventually they hit it off and fall in love.

This girl, Mary, is portrayed in very respectful way, she is not dressed provocatively, and is not unrealistically beautiful. In addition, she is intelligent and spends her free time reading. To me, that was a refreshing thing to see in Hollywood today. When Mary talks to the other females in the film such as Tim’s mother and sister, she does talk about Tim. Thus, this movie does not pass the “bechdel test. “ But every woman in this movie is respected. For example, Tim’s sister is a hippie and somewhat strange, but in the opening scene he talks about how his sister is the person he loves the most. The way Tim cares about woman proves that he is a respectful man.

 I was not surprised that this movie didn’t pass the test. I went into the movie knowing that it was a love story, so I figured that the girl in the story would be portrayed in that way. I was, however, surprised on how well the women were represented and how relatable they seemed. They were normal, average women who were just in love.

Although About Time did not pass the test, I still believe that this movie is a step in the right direction for Hollywood. Every woman was respected by the males and was put on a pedestal not only for beauty, but also for brains and personality. A movie like About Time does give me a small ounce of hope for the future of cinema.