PHOTO COURTESY A24

The romance “We Live in Time” plays out like the 1970 drama “Love Story” set to shuffle.

That’s a compliment. It certainly makes the story more effective than “Love Story.”

In this subtle tearjerker from director John Crowley (who helmed the similarly subtle romance “Brooklyn”), scenes from the romance of Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) play out the way memories come forward when you’re half asleep; a while is spent on one phase of life, then a quick diversion to a bit of the past, then the present roughly intrudes. The film thus frees us from the expected and predictable beats of a cinematic relationship, instead creating an arc that feels fresh and engaging.

The pair has an unlikely meet-cute when Tobias, having just angrily purchased a pen to sign his divorce papers, is struck by a passing car driven by Almut. She’s a chef and invites him to dinner as a make-good for the vehicular trauma; when he reveals that he’s newly divorced, the pair quickly shack up.

In the present, however, Almut is dealing with a resurgence of ovarian cancer and trying to balance increasingly taxing treatment with a desire to maintain her career. She’d like to compete in an elite cooking competition; he’d like to finally get properly married.

Now and then, we visit the point in the past where the couple struggled to conceive a child, or the brief stretch when they broke up after a semantic lovers’ spat. While the pattern of time-hopping is indiscernible, it makes a sort of fever-dream sense — appropriate, perhaps, for a movie as much about illness as it is about romance.

To be clear, there’s a lot of cliche in here; an inexplicably affluent and beautiful couple dealing with mid-life romance, parenthood and disease is not exactly new territory. And, all hipster signifiers aside, it’s an unrepentant tearjerker; “We Live in Time” will root around in your chest to ensure that no heartstring is left unplucked.

But any misgivings you might have about the well-trod material will likely be dashed by the charm and charisma of the performers. They’re both excellent and highly sympathetic actors, and they bring out the best in one another.

My Rating: 8/10

“We Live in Time” is now playing in theaters.