Not much of science fiction, nor much of a love story either.

Grade: C

The Time Traveler’s Wife

Indian Release Date: 09/10/09
CBFC Classification:  A
Running Length: 2 Hours 03 minutes

Cast: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Jane McLean, Ron Livingston, Stephen Tobolowsky
Director: Robert Schwentke
Screenplay: Bruce Joel Rubin, based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger
Cinematography: Florian Ballhaus
Music: Mychael Danna

Directed by Robert Schwentke ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ is based on the same titled bestselling novel by Audrey Niffenegger. It is the story of Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) who has a genetic disorder which makes him time travel involuntarily & spontaneously. He is married to Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams) who knows everything about him including his time travelling illness.

Now sounds like a crazy plot but ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ was a very popular novel. The author Audrey Niffenegger said that the story was a metaphor for all of her previous failed relationships, a story about love and loss. So the story focuses on the husband and wife relationship and how they cope with what’s thrown at them, this time it just happens to be time travel.

The movie begins with Henry as a small child, there is a car accident in which his mother is killed, Henry survives because he suddenly time travels. Henry is helped by an older man who explains to him that they are the same person, ‘’I am you Henry when you’re older, you don’t understand now but you will in the future’’.

Then we zip some years into the future and meet Henry in his twenties working in a Chicago library, a young woman enters the library and sees Henry, she knows him instantly and goes on to introduce herself and to tell Henry that she has known him for a long time. They begin a relationship but it is obviously strained due to the fact that Henry keeps disappearing, Claire seems to spend most of her time waiting for him to return.

They decide to marry and knowing how hard things are for Clare, Henry gives her the winning lotto numbers, a perk of his condition. Clare falls pregnant several times but each time looses the baby due to Henry’s genes making it seem impossible for the child to go full term. To prevent this happening again Henry secretly has a vasectomy but to his surprise a younger version of himself comes to visit Clare and she falls pregnant once more. This time successfully having a girl, Henry travels into the future and meets his daughter of ten years old, she tells him she can also time travel but she also reveals some devastating news to Henry.

This is one movie where I would recommend reading the book first otherwise you might just sit down to watch and wonder what the hell is going on and how could anyone write such a silly story. It’s one of those where you have to try and overlook the ridiculousness, like you had to do when you were watching ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.  By the way, Brad Pitt also had a hand in making this movie, he being an Executive Producer.

I can’t say it’s a bad movie as I know many folks out there will enjoy it. For me it was soppy, uninteresting and didn’t grip me. No exciting effects which you might expect when it involves time travel, the acting was only fine and even the sets were dull. This movie is really for those who are interested, who’ve read the book and like soppiness.

Final Verdict: Don’t expect an exciting time travel movie, this is a love story.

Grade: C

 

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