“The man in the family can travel in time.” This is what Tim Lake was told by his father, James when he turned 21. Since then, his typical and ordinary life has changed. He could do many things with his newly found ability: get money, not have a job, and maybe change the universe. However, Tim stuck to his own priority in life — love. He used his liberation from time limits for the loved ones in his life. In London, he met the love of his life, Mary (also his mother’s name, but let us not get into that.) He saved his friend’s play from being a complete disaster — a Titanic with no survivors. He helped his sister Kit Kat to find the real meaning of love. Lastly, he traveled to the past to meet his father after he had passed away. In the end, he tells us the message he learned from his amazing ability. Let us hear the message he found in his plain yet warm and adorable life.


Situation.1

Tim finds out about his ability when he has just turned 21. To his surprise, he can travel in time! Tim seeks his father James’s advice on how to use this ability wisely.

 
Tim : Does Mum know?
James : Not a whistle.
Tim : Strange. And what about the whole... Butterfly effect thing. What can I say?
James : We don’t seem to have messed up civilisation yet.
Tim : It’s gonna be a complicated year.
James : It’s gonna be a complicated life.
Tim : What have you done with it?
James : For me, it’s books, books, books. I’ve read everything a man could wish to. Twice. Dickens three times. Any first thoughts?
Tim : Well, I suppose apart from getting a slightly better haircut... Money would be the obvious thing.
James : Very mixed blessing. Utterly screwed up your grandfather's life. Left him without love or friends. I've never bumped into a genuinely happy rich person.
Tim : It would be nice not to have to work.
James : No, that’s a real recipe for disaster. Look what happened to Uncle Fred.
Tim : What happened to Uncle Fred?
James : Absolutely sod all. Wasted his life. You have to use it for things that you really think will make your life the way you want it to be. Come on, really think about this.
Tim : Well, to be honest, I suppose, at the moment, it would be just great if it could help me get a girlfriend.
James : Wow. Massive.
Tim : Yeah. The mother ship.
For me, it was always gonna be about love.

Situation. 2

In the end of the movie, Tim gives us the final message he learned in life. He tells us that being free from the constraint of time could be tempting, but living days earnestly make every day special and precious.

 
Tim : In the end, I think I’ve learned the final lesson from my travels in time.
And I’ve even gone one step further than my father did.
The truth is, I now don’t travel back at all.
Not even for the day.
I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day to enjoy it as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.
We’re all travelling through time together every day of our lives.
All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable ride.

 

butterfly effect 나비 효과 (한 체제의 아주 작은 부분에 대한 변화가 다른 부분에 큰 영향을 가져오는 것) civilisation 문명 obvious 분명한, 명백한 blessing 축복, 은총 screw up 망치다 bump into (우연히) ~와 마주치다 genuinely 진정으로, 순수하게 sod all 아무도[아무것도] 아님 deliberately 고의로, 의도적으로 relish 즐기다, 좋아하다 remarkable 놀랄 만한, 주목할 만한

 

Kim Soo-yeon Reporter
shunny03@uos.ac.kr
 

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