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| | Label: New Line
Salesrank:
Released: February 9, 2010 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Blu-ray |
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Editorial Review:
A genuinely old-fashioned Hollywood romance with a science fiction angle, The Time Traveler's Wife stars Eric Bana as Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder causing him to travel through time involuntarily. The screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin (My Life), based on a novel by Audrey Niffenegger, incorporates some of those crazy paradoxes that are a part of time-travel fiction, but without beating one over the head. Take Henry's introduction to his future wife, Clare (Rachel McAdams), who tells him they've already met even though they haven't actually met. Brain teasers, however, are not what The Time Traveler's Wife is about. In a quite haunting way, the story really concerns what it means to know and love someone at every phase of his or her life. The fact that Henry's life, from Clare's perspective, is hardly linear--he can disappear and turn back up again at different ages--means that she must cherish what is essential about him. Which doesn't mean the couple is immune to periods of unhappiness, including a painful sequence about trying to bear a child--perhaps a child that might also carry the time-traveling gene.
While there is nothing particularly exciting stylistically about The Time Traveler's Wife, in many ways it has the simple charms and clear emotions of a 1940s weepie assigned by a studio to one of its journeyman, contract directors. (The film was directed by Flightplan's Robert Schwentke.) A couple of supporting players, Arliss Howard (as Henry's father) and Ron Livingston (as Henry's friend), provide even more reason to recommend this movie as a satisfying experience. --Tom Keogh
The Time Traveler's Wife [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Great movie! 
2009-09-20 - Review from my wife: It was so compelling and well done, and both my husband and I enjoyed this movie tremendously. The story line was intersting, the characters were really well developed and you really care about them. The acting was excellent, and we found ourselves really pulled in throughout the entire movie.
Contrary to some of the reviews I read, this movie was easy to follow. I don't understand what the problem was. I had never read the book, yet it was completely clear what was going on. I don't get why anyone would have had a problem. Also, there was nothing strange or wrong about the traveller visiting the younger version of his love interest. It was very innocent. One reviewer's mention that there was no plausible explanation for the lead's time travel abilities doesn't make sense to me. There was a very sufficient and even detailed explanation given in the movie. Keep in mind that we're dealing with a fiction scifi story here, and it was plenty adequate. I found I was able to buy into the concept and really immerse myself, and ultimately I enjoyed the story very much.
This is a really fine movie, and I'd recommend that anyone who enjoys scifi, time travel or romance view this.
A good movie based on a great book 
2009-09-14 - In reviewing the Time Traveler's Wife, you have to address two types of viewers, people who have never read the book, and the passionate, opinionated fans who have read the bestselling novel that the movie is based on. If you have read the book, you definitely will be dissapointed in the movie. The book is so in depth and contains so many layers and different characters that it is impossible to include it all in one normal length movie. But on its own, the movie is pretty good.
I have read the book and found the movie quite enjoyable. Eric Bana is perfect as Henry DeTamble, the man suffering from chrono-displacement disorder which causes him to time travel on a whim. The beautiful Rachel McAdams is Clair Abshire, the woman destined to love Henry.
There is good chemistry between the pair as the film moves quickly to their marriage and the difficulties they face as they try to live a life when Henry may have knowledge about their future that could be painful. If you haven't read the book, this is a really good movie. I don't think the time travel elements are too confusing, and the movie is filled with great acting and emotional scenes (Alba, Henry and his mom.)
One thing the movie misses by skipping over so many parts is the true characterization of Henry and Claire. The movie never really gives us a picture of the two other than their lives revolving around Henry's condition. We don't learn about their careers, or how Henry developed a great relationship with Claire as a child and a teenager.
As with all novel adaptations, the film version leaves a lot out. But I enjoyed seeing this story told as a movie. While it has flaws, fans of the book and people looking for a good romance should enjoy it.
Heartfelt, Touching Adaptation of The Best-Selling Novel
2009-09-07 - "The Time Traveler's Wife," based on the best-seller novel by Audrey Niffenegger, is a beautifully realized, poignant romance that makes the viewer thing a lot about love, time, space, devotion, and many other lofty topics.
Eric Bana plays, Henry, a librarian who has a genetic disorder that causes him to randomly travel in time without any notice. He arrives and returns from his travels naked, and has no control over when he leaves and returns. His travels find him at various ages, reliving events like the death of his opera-singer mother in a car accident, or experiencing events for the first time, like getting to know a young girl name Clair. When he is in his late twenties, Clair, who is exactly twenty(played by Rachel McAdams),finds him. At this point, he doesn't know her, but she has known him since she was a little girl.
The rest of film details a relationship fraught with the unknown. Henry leaves and returns without any warning, takes a few close friend into his confidence regarding his secret, struggles to maintain a romance, then a marriage with Clair, and struggles to start a family and remain hopeful, knowing that the future is uncertain and likely to remain unstable.
Bana and McAdams are wonderful in the roles of Henry and Clair. This movie wouldn't work at all unless the characters were perfectly played, had chemistry, and were able to make you focus on the struggle of their relationship rather than the fantasy element of their problem. But the skill of the story is that time traveler ends up being such a perfect metaphor for the uncertainty and difficulties of romantic relationships.
This movie is wonderfully moving in ways that have to be experienced rather than described.
a wonderful daydream
2009-08-26 - This movie is based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger. If one is looking for a romantic movie to watch on a lazy summer day then this is it. Though the question about how one lives their life if they are in love with someone who is constantly popping in and out of their time and life is never really fully explored here. We are asked to accept this dreamy romance just as she does. And we, for the most part do. This warm and beautiful film tugs on all the heart strings, though perhaps it misses on some opportunities for exploration, such as to investigate what might happen when one has an affair with one's husband's younger self after one tires of his present incarnation, or to explain why more people don't know about this time traveller since he seemingly can't control these moments when he disappears. Her "affair" with his younger self is dismissed between them as a humorous anomaly. And this little bump in their relationship leads to them having a child. But this child for some reason grows up with the ability to control her jumps in time, whereas he can't. What's his problem? And are there others like him, and his daughter? What if there are?
But for the most part I find myself suspending my sense of logic, and just enjoying this film which casts its spell of love over us. The two attractive and appealing lead actors do win us over. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana warmly embrace each other and the camera in this wonderful daydream of a film.
a fitting adaptation of a superb novel
2009-08-26 - A good adaptation of one of the best books of our time. This was a hard act to do and the movie did a rather faithful and strong capturing of the spirit of the book if not a play-by-play retelling of it. Having said that, it's also worth commending the filmmakers on the smoothness with which they handled the disappearance and reappearance of the main character and the CGI that was involved with him dissipating into thin air during his time travels. Eric Bana does justice to Henry, whereas Ron Livingston is perfectly cast in the role of Gomez, Henry's friend and Claire's "protector" (in the book Gomez is obsessed with Claire and wished to spend the rest of his life with her, whereas in the movie his relationship isn't as clearly defined - he is mostly a concerned friend). It's sad that this movie was shelved for so long and it's very reassuring to see it do well at the box office (so far the movie has grossed about $30 million domestically and the theater I went to tonight was sold out for the 8 pm showing - always a good sign for a film).
Disclamer: It's also worth noting that as a huge fan of the book, my opinion about this movie is rather skewed - I tend to fill in the gaps and care about the characters because the book had done a great job of developing the characters. The movie, however, hardly makes the characters relateable, and someone who sees the movie without having the book as the plot background, might find the Claire-Henry relationship a bit offputting.
