Still Time or Era Ora is an Italian comedy-drama film based on Dante, a workaholic who finds himself time-travelling one year ahead every few hours. It is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The film starts with Dante swooping in and kissing a woman. It turns out that he has mistaken her for his girlfriend as they were both wearing a similar dress.
After his girlfriend slaps him and leaves, he chooses not to follow her and flirts with the woman he had kissed; Alice.
They eventually start dating and Alice tries to surprise him on his birthday but he seems too engrossed in his work.
She organises a surprise birthday party for him, to which he shows up late. He’s also more interested in fixing a door than the party.
He also snubs his friend Valerie’s request of taking a rollercoaster ride as Dante had always been afraid of it.
After the celebrations, he wakes up to the shock of his life. Everything he thinks happened yesterday, actually took place one year ago.
Furthermore, what he believes to be a prank at first turns out to be true. Alice is pregnant with his child.
When he wakes up next, Alice is no longer pregnant. That happened one year ago and now they have a daughter named after the Lord of the Rings character Galadriel.
While in the bathroom, another year suddenly passes. Galadriel is now a toddler and Dante has no memory of her growing up. To add to this, he and Alice have been facing issues in their marriage as he is always busy with work.
As Dante enters his boss’ cabin, one additional year has gone by. He now finds himself as the director and has a secretary named Francesca.
Dante and Alice opt for couples counselling. During the conversation, Dante ends up saying that he works this hard so that she can live an easy life making sketches. Alice is visibly hurt by this.
She does not return home with Dante, and when he wakes up next, another year has passed and they are now on a break.
He has a talk with his father, who has always believed that he was there for his family. Dante tells him he was not a good father and he doesn’t want to be like him.
Dante has apparently been hooking up with Francesca for six months. Alice comes to see him, forcing him to hide Francesca.
She tells him that a gallery owner wants to display her sketches and Dante is genuinely happy for her. They are on the verge of reconciling, when Alice notices Francesca’s heels.
She is furious that he slept with someone else when they were on break and storms out. Dante yells and Francesca to leave his house and never return.
Suddenly, another year has passed, and he is about to marry Francesca. When he says he does not want this to happen, she replies that he has never been his first choice either.
He tries to get back with Alice, but she says that she has finally understood how to live without him and is satisfied. One more year passes, Alice is now with Omar, who’s much more easygoing compared to Dante.
When Dante takes Galadriel to the park, she says she only wants to spend more time with him. This begins to stir a change in him.
Still Time ending explained in detail:
What happens to Dante’s father?
Dante finds that his father is in a bad condition. He does not remember him and talks about his own childhood.
He confesses to his father that he never did anything for others but is a selfish person who always wanted more to prove that he was better than his father.
To this, his father replies: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” perfectly encapsulating his behaviour. He then continues talking about his school days as if they happened yesterday.
His father suddenly starts coughing and he gets water for him. But when he returns, the house is being cleared out. His father is dead.
Is Valerio dead or Alive?
During a conversation with Valerio, he reveals that he has been suffering from cancer. Dante pleads with him to get better.
After his father’s death, he calls Valerio, worried that he might have died as well, but he turns out to be just fine.
On his birthday, he finally takes Dante on that rollercoaster ride. At the end of it, Dante ends up passing out but he had so much fun that he wants to do it again.
The whole experience instils a change in him to the extent that he takes Valerio’s car and rushes to his office.
Does Dante change? Do he and Alice get back together?
At the office, he asks Francesca how many vacation days he has left. When she informs him that he has ninety-six days, he opts to take them altogether.
He gets a dog for Galadriel and asks Alice to come to his house as well. The three have a great time together.
After Dante tucks Galadriel into bed and sleeps himself, he finds that time has not jumped forward this time. He promises Alice that he will change, who finds herself considering whether to give him another chance.
He knows that the past won’t come back, but he wants to change from this day. He also tells her about him taking all his vacation days.
When she says he’ll get bored doing nothing, he replies that he won’t, with her and Galadriel. And that there’s “still time”.
Galadriel interrupts their conversation but it is strongly hinted that Dante and Alice get back together eventually.
The time-travelling also stopped the moment he realised what he was doing wrong and possibly occurred to make him a more compassionate person who understands his priorities.
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