The Time Traveler’s Wife

– Two and a half stars (out of four)
– Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, brief disturbing images, nudity and sexuality.
– Who’s going to like it: women who enjoy romantic flicks, the guys who don’t mind getting dragged to them and guys who enjoy science fiction and the fun playing with of time.

A great blend of sci-fi and romance

Before seeing The Time Traveler’s Wife, I was looking forward to it for three reasons: one – the science fiction aspect, playing with time and characters. Two – Rachel McAdams. She can do no wrong. And if you saw her in State of Play, you know that her acting abilities are quickly getting better and better. And three – Eric Bana. Lots of people criticize him for his performances in Funny People, Star Trek, Hulk and Troy. But you can’t dicredit his outstanding performances in Black Hawk Down and Munich. The guy can act.

And just as I had hoped, all three of those things came together to make The Time Traveler’s Wife a movie well worth viewing.

Although the trailers make The Time Traveler’s Wife out to be McAdams’ character’s story, it’s not. The film tells the story of Henry DeTamble (Bana) who at the age of six disappears through time just before a fatal car crash – saving his life. Just moments later, he returns naked to the same site of the crash where an adult version of himself tells him that everything will be alright. Although the film cuts to black there, you get the feeling that the older version of Henry explained that from then on, Henry would unexpectedly travel through time, leaving his clothes behind, arriving at his unknown destination completely nude. Call him a criminal, but he usually breaks and enters just to get clothes.

Jump thirty years into the future. Now an adult attending college and working in the on-campus library, Henry meets a beautiful girl named Clare Abshire (McAdams). Even though this is the first time Henry meets Clare, it’s not the first time she meets him. Since Clare was a child, she’s known an adult version of Henry that would travel back in time spend afternoons with her. She fell in love with the much older Henry and has waited her whole life for the day that she would meet him, being an adult. Romance ensues.

There’s not too much of a story to The Time Traveler’s Wife. It shows the hardship and burden of Henry’s disappearing to other times of their relationship – taking you through the sweet ups and downs of life as if you were in this odd relationship. The women who see this film will enjoy the romance aspect of it all. The men who see it will enjoy the craftiness of the script in using time travel as a fun cinematic device. For example: in one scene, Clare is waiting for Henry to show up for a very important event. Just as he is supposed to arrive, he travels. Moments later, saving the day, a much older version of Henry donning gray hair arrives and fills in for the younger one. Another example: In the middle of the night, while sleeping next to Henry, Clare gets a phone call from a younger naked Henry that needs help, having just traveled forward in time now stranded in the cold. Fun things like this happen throughout the entire film. Early in the movie Henry disappears, but later we see where he went. An older version of Henry appears, and later we see when he goes back. These sort of Back To The Future moments are very fun to watch.

But with all of the fun aside, at it’s very core, The Time Traveler’s Wife is a dramatic science fiction romance film. It’s serious and somber. The first thirty minutes of the film are not only slow, but don’t successfully help you create connections with the characters. After that, it picks up and starts getting right everything it got wrong in the beginning. All in all, I really like The Time Traveler’s Wife. And I suspect most people will too.

Photo credit: New Line Cinema