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As most movie fans know, nothing supercharges a serious weepie like a fatal disease. Almost anything will do, as long as death is seen to be impending. In her 1868 novel "Little Women," Louisa May Alcott got considerable milage out of scarlet fever, which naturally spread to the book's several screen adaptations as well. Even a relatively obscure affliction like viral cardiomyopathy found momentary favor in the 1988 "Beaches," in which Barbara Hershey bought the farm.

But cancer is the big one, virtually a genre unto itself. There's the 1970 "Love Story," of course; the Oscar-swaddled "Terms of Endearment" (1983); and the 2014 "The Fault in Our Stars," in which the two main characters (played by Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley) both have cancer, making it -- believe me -- extra-sad.

A weepie doesn't have to be fashioned out of soggy cliches of time and mortality. "The Fault in Our Stars," for example, is simply a good movie. And now there's "We Live in Time," a film that takes a sidelong look at ovarian cancer while incorporating it into a love story with an unusual form. The picture has been written, with great originality, by Nick Payne ("The Last Letter from Your Lover") and gracefully directed by John Crowley (the 2015 "Brooklyn"). But its key assets are the exhilarating lead performances at its center, by Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, two actors operating at the top of their talents, who push the picture beyond the tired conventions of genre.

Garfield, in his gentlest leading-man mode, plays Tobias, an executive with the British Weetabix company, purveyor of crunchy breakfast cereal. When we meet him, he is in a lawyer's office signing divorce papers. When his pen runs out of ink, he ventures out into the night to buy a replacement. Heading back again, he gets hit by a car. The next thing he knows, he's lying in a hospital bed, very much the worse for wear. Watching over him is a young woman named Almut (Pugh), who tells him she is the person who ran him over. Tobias doesn't hold this against her.

Are Tobias and Almut a perfect match, coincidentally made for each other? Not exactly. He is a contented, workaday fellow, while Almut is a top chef, esteemed in the world of fine dining. (Her specialty is "Bavarian fusion" -- tiny sausages! -- which suggests an explanation for her German name.) Soon enough, Tobias informs Almut that, despite the unconcealed wedding ring he was wearing when they met, he is currently single.

You can imagine what follows, although probably not entirely. As you'd expect, Tobias and Almut move in together. He wants to have children; she informs him she has ovarian cancer and has also been told she'll need a hysterectomy. She doesn't, though, and before long there follows a harrowing scene of childbirth in the toilet of a highway gas station that is unlikely to be equaled in any other movie anytime soon. Next, at the worst possible moment, Almut gets accepted to take part in a top-line cooking competition in Italy. It's a dream come true -- but will she live to take part in it?

The movie is unnecessarily complicated by its duplex time structure -- we're sometimes unsure through which parts of their lives the protagonists are passing. But the picture is rich in unexpected events and scenes, and Garfield and Pugh are the very embodiment of onscreen chemistry. Watching them interact in an alternately loving and frustrated way is close to watching life itself unspool all around us. "We Live in Time" is a little more than just another movie. It's a gift.

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To find out more about Kurt Loder and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

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