Documentaries are typically very subjective films that can either be very small in scale or massive in scale. Subjects could be very broad topics or very intense subjects. But at the end of the day, a documentary’s goal is to tell the story of the subject and explore the topic at hand. Sadly, Liz Unna’s Making Time makes us ask one question. It’s whether ot not the audience is going to want to make time for the documentary. There isn’t anything explicitly un-Googleable here. However, the film doesn’t hone in on any subject for too long and wanders into the oblivion of time itself.

Making Time focuses on several different characters with different interests and facets of information. Some facets are more interesting than others. But ultimately nothing dives in past face value information and never gets too interesting on any front. There is one person in particular who pulls the curtain behind the chaos of making watches and the chaos of big business. However, that is the most interesting the documentary gets about the world of watch making and creation of watches. There are moments of intrigue in the documentary about the creation of watches and the mechanics behind it. Moments that exposes how absolutely beautiful and astonishing these creations are. However, it never fully dives into that subject too much either.

Liz Unna’s Making Time gets some steam and explores the really interesting aspects of watch making and the business behind it. Sadly, it never dives into anything too deep. Focusing on too many characters and exploring some aspects is not enough to keep audiences engaged throughout the final product. The documentary is so short (only running 78 minutes). One would think that they wanted to make the most of the time they had. But it begs the question as to how much it left on the cutting room floor. If things did get further explored and developed in the creation, the business, or the sublime artistry that goes into creating these watches may have delivered a better final product.

The world of intrigue of watchmaking and the people involved in the industry may certainly make for a compelling documentary and creating a timeless world. But Making Time, unfortunately, is not the documentary to fully flesh out this timely story. There is not enough focus and development into the interesting aspects of Making Time to create an engaging world for the audiences to lose themselves in. It does feel like time dedicated to Making Time may be a poor choice of time spent.