“I was sure that that would really play at the end of the film. The idea behind that was that in life, death is irredeemable. It’s an absolute event that happens — game over,” Crowley says. “And in storytelling, it’s not. You actually can come back to life in stories, and you can find the truth of what that means and find the expression of that.”

It’s not a surprise given he directed the equally character-driven “Brooklyn.” But even though the screenplay from Nick Payne offers fine moments, what really makes us fall in love with “Live in Time” are Pugh and Garfield.