The Time Traveler’s Wife (Movie Review)

Rating:

The Time Traveler’s Wife really tries to fly through time with a fast-paced beginning. The love story will captivate you and may make you fight back your tears, but the film loses its essence as the story unfolds.

The time traveler, Henry (Eric Bana), disappears into time because of a genetic anomaly, which makes this film sort of sci-fi, since it is, after all, from a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, who wrote Ghost. He seems to want to recapture this story once again but fails at it. Clare (Rachel McAdams) has more of an imaginary friend at times than a husband in Henry; her side of the story keeps the film more grounded. We see an element of sadness and loneliness in her life because of Henry’s off-and-on appearances, which we can relate to. The story just gets weirder and more surreal as the movie continues, which makes the plot shaky.

The book, which was very successful, should not have come to life, at least not on the big screen. The film touches upon an interesting dilemma between whether our choices have been made for us or if we have free will when dealing with the past and future. Henry is able to travel from the present to both the past and the future, but it gets so complicated that the main character ends up competing for his own wife with his old and young selves.

Since the story is told by the way their romance unfolds, not by the passing of time, there is some rhythm that one can follow. One thing viewers can look forward to is a couple of nude scenes spread throughout the film. You may go and enjoy the romance of the story, but don’t expect to get much out of it.