The Time Traveler's Wife
"This must be a metaphor for something, surely?"
I haven’t read Audrey Niffenegger’s best-selling novel and after seeing this silly, banal movie I very much doubt I’ll be seeking it out, but the book clearly speaks to some people, and maybe the film will too.
There is a situation, not a plot: Clare (Rachel McAdams) is hopelessly in love with Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana), a chap she meets when she’s all of six years old, and he’s stark naked (behind a bush).
He explains that he’s a time traveler, and when he evaporates before her eyes (after promising to return next Tuesday) she finds that she believes him.
Cast details
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Rachel McAdams
Born: 17 Nov 1978
London, OntarioTop rated films View all Notebook, The - BLU-RAY Version (2004) 
The Notebook (2004) 
What it is that Henry sees in her is not clear (he’s in his thirties at this point), so their love affair must be destiny. At any rate, he does keep popping back at various ages – sometimes he’s younger, sometimes he’s sprouting a few grey hairs around the temple – to lay the groundwork for their first meeting… That is, when the grown up Clare will meet the befuddled younger Henry, and explain to him that she’s known him all her life even though he has never met her.
Still with me? Nor me. But the movie goes on in this vein for another two hours, with Eric coming and going whenever he gets over-excited, and Rachel welcoming him with open arms, and worrying when he’ll show up next, and how old he might be when he does.
In one of the film’s quirkier touches, like Arnie in The Terminator, Henry always shows up starkers – see his clothes don’t have the same genetic abnormality that he has. (As far as we know this is not a problem for his offspring, Alba, though she shares his dubious gift.)
The Time Traveler's Wife: Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana
Consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds, the movie pretty much makes up the rules of time travel as it goes along, revising them along the way as the story demands. So Henry can’t effect the future, it is written in stone. Except when he shows up with a winning lottery ticket, absolving Clare of any financial worries for the foreseeable future (which is saying quite a bit in his case).
Also he can’t control his wandering… Except that sometimes he and Clare seem to live a fairly normal existence for extended periods, and other times, he’s gone for years. Just like a man! Clare doesn’t just accept this, she embraces it – as if suffering and separation are integral components of what she seems to believe is a perfect romance. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps.
Directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan) and scripted by Bruce Joel Rubin, who evidently has a thing for dead men walking (Ghost, Jacob’s Ladder, My Life), The Time Traveler’s Wife has some intriguingly jumbled chronology, but it soon runs out of ideas for things for Henry and Claire to do, and thereafter settles into a fairly conventional soap opera, albeit with quite a bit of discreet male nudity to spice things up.
The Time Traveler's Wife: Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana
Originally optioned by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston – evidently some time back – the movie now looks suspiciously like a dumbed down Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. If you found that film pretentious this sentimental tearjerker could be more to your taste.
Reviews
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Critics' reviews
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Eric Bana stars in this no-heartstring-left-unmolested adaptation of Audrey Niffeneggers bestselling book about a... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful members' reviews (3)
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28 out of 33 people found this review helpful
Can't wait for this...
I really hope it lives to to expectations. Just finished the book and i didn't just cry, i sobbed.
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25 out of 37 people found this review helpful
Terrible book
The book was sooo boring I just think the film will be too. it was just so unbelievable.
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12 out of 14 people found this review helpful
The time travller's wife
The book is amazing a proper weepy. I can't wait to see the film. I hope it is as good as the book!
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Most recent members' reviews (2)
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Good Film
Have just seen the film today and although at some stages of the film the story is hard to follow i thought overall that the film was good.
Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams once again play both of their parts brilliantly so that the audience are able to feel the real love and emotion of the story.
Bear in mind before watching the film that if you cry easilly i would recomend taking a box of tissues just incase because their are a lot of sad parts which you may get a lump in the back of your throat.
Some people or you may have been hearing that the film is rubbish but everyone has their own opinions so id say to the people who are thinking about going to see the film should do so, so that they are able to make up their own mind about what they think of the film.
I would certainly recomend going to see the film -
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
The Time Traveller's Wife
Rubbish, very boring. Drags on and on. Stupid story and just stupid. One good thing is Rachael Mcadams is in it. DO NOT WATCH!
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28 out of 33 people found this review helpful
Can't wait for this...
I really hope it lives to to expectations. Just finished the book and i didn't just cry, i sobbed.
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25 out of 37 people found this review helpful
Terrible book
The book was sooo boring I just think the film will be too. it was just so unbelievable.
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12 out of 14 people found this review helpful
The time travller's wife
The book is amazing a proper weepy. I can't wait to see the film. I hope it is as good as the book!
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9 out of 11 people found this review helpful
Absolutely Brilliant
Amazing book, loved every word of it, just hope the film can capture the same emotion.
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8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
back to the future
Time-travel plots have more holes than a prostitute's stockings, so why bother? They don't in The Time Traveller's Wife, and the film is all the better for it, especially for dispelling the time-travel trope that meeting yourself would cause a paradox, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... sorry.
Okay, back to the feature (teehee). I liked The Time Traveller's Wife. Really liked it, and I'm not one for mushy, sentimental, chick flicks. Haven't read the book, wouldn't want to, but for an hour and a half the movie had just the right amount of sci-fi thrown in amongst the canoodling to keep me hooked. Yes, it runs the human gauntlet of emotions, making you dance to their tune like a marionette suspended from it's own heart strings. But there aren't any sickly speeches expounding on relationships and love and death, and the two leads have great onscreen chemistry.
Beautifully shot, directed well, and no surprise that the script was written by Bruce Joel Rubin, who penned Deep Impact (another film that had me gushing, and a far superior film to Armageddon) and My Life.
It's not about plot, it's about time and love... but in a good way! And with little explanation, it actually makes more sense than the popular Somewhere in Time.
I'd say if you're a fan of both Deep Impact and What Dreams May Come, you'll adore this film. Take the violence out of Terminator and you might ask 'What have you got?' Well, I think you might have something like The Time Traveller's Wife. -
7 out of 9 people found this review helpful
Can't Wait!
I loved the book and I can't wait till it comes out in the cinema, it looks great-
I hope it has the same effect as it did with the book. -
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
loved it
This book is purely romantic fantasy, can not really see it translating to film.
worth a read though.
i loved it. -
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
the time travellers wife
I liked this book, whilst unbelievable, it became so when you read it, sad but well written, if the film is half as good it will be great.
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5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
The Time Traveller's Wife
Rubbish, very boring. Drags on and on. Stupid story and just stupid. One good thing is Rachael Mcadams is in it. DO NOT WATCH!
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Be prepared - take tissues!
The film is never as good as the book but if the trailer is anything to go by then for all you romantics out there i definately recommend taking a trip to see it. Take a box of tissues with you, you're bound to need them.
Critics' reviews
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Eric Bana stars in this no-heartstring-left-unmolested adaptation of Audrey Niffeneggers bestselling book about a... read more on Time Out