Sundance 2020: Time

It must feel like the gods are on the side of a documentary maker who finds a subject who is compelling with just a camera in her face.

I imagine Garrett Bradley felt blessed by the gods when Fox Rich, the protagonist of the documentary, came onscreen. The aptly named docu Time presents footage across the 21 years Fox’s husband, Rob, was away in prison for.

Fox is a natural presence and her own videos, which present her husband an opportunity to see what he missed from his home, also becomes a tribute to one woman’s tenacity. While Rob laments his wasting the family’s money on the legal process, Fox keeps on appealing and lobbying for his release.

The documentary shows black love even as the male partner is absent from the picture for more than half its run time. Besides a scene where Fox apologises for the robbery her husband had tried to commit after driving him to the bank, there are few onscreen moments where that robbery decision is reckoned with. While I understand the idea behind that decision, this after all is a wife’s paean to her husband, I wished a little more of the couple’s contriteness was shown.

Some viewers might think there is more to show of the couple but the ending feels about right. We have just hand a 20-year incursion into the subject’s life. It is time now for privacy.