Almut (Floreance Pugh) is happily married to Tobias (Andrew Garfield). She works as a chef, while he is a corporate employee of Weetabix Cereals (Almut’s co-workers affectionatly nickname him “Mr Weetabix”, in a very peculiar merchandising model). They have a three-year-old daughter, and live comfortably somewhere in Britain. But not all is well. Almut has recurrent cancer, after successfully fending off the disease just before her daughter’s birth. The doctor tells her that she will require at least two courses of chemotherapy and one operation before she can resume her life as normal. But Almut isn’t the type to give up that easily. Despite the horrible aside effects of the treatment (she shaves her head, and constantly vomits), she is determined to take part in a major European baking contest, and to win it.

The first two thirds of the film are structured in chronological zigzag, to satisfactory results. Director John Crawley and scriptwriter Nick Payne provide us viewers with fragments of Almut’s and Tobias’s lives, from the day they met until the second cancer diagnosis. We are then asked to slowly put the puzzle pieces together, and also to fill the gaps. This includes the disastrous accident that led to the chance encounter and inevitable infatuation, the first cancer episode, the pregnancy, the birth, and… the separation! Oh, don’t worry! That’s Tobias’s divorce from his former wife. His relationship with Almut remains mostly intact, despite the many trails and tribulations.

Garfield and Pugh are just as irresistible as you would expect. The actor boasts a deceptively warm in ingenuous smirk, while the eyes of the actress are radiant with humanity and determination. She is the vaguely subversive character, and the one who wears the trousers. She nearly rips Tobias to shreds at the suggestion that they should have a child soon, lest her body clock starts ticking. Until cancer forces her to rethink her timeline and her priorities. Lee Braithwaite delivers the movie’s most quietly potent performance, as Almut devoted assistant and commis chef.

This 104-minute British contains the most familiar romcom ingredients. Two conventionally good-looking and widely recognisable leads, two and flat morally sound – if vaguely fallible – protagonists, minor arguments with abundant self-deprecation and snide comments, a string of clumsy events (such as a birth from hell at the local petrol station), a pervasive piano score, highly sanitised lovemaking, the conventional meet cute (a first meet under very awkward circumstances), an uplifting and crowd-pleasing denouement, and an easily digestible adage (something to the effect: “fight and you shall win”). The cancer topic is a mere substitute for the more classic conflict (such as a nasty family, a class divide, or an extra-marital affair). As with most romcoms, don’t expect a major effort at realism (the chemo version of Almut is notably unconvincing).

This is a very familiar cinematic formula. We Live in Time is a traditional film dish infused with saccharine, and with a few bitter notes. A pleasant enough combination of flavours, just not one that will remain imprinted in your culinary memory for very long.

We Live in Time was Closing Gala film of the 72nd San Sebastian International Film Festival (when this piece was originally written). The UK premiere takes place in October, at the BFI London Film Festival.