Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife

Spoiler at the very far bottom.

The Time Traveler's Wife is not a movie I would recommend. It's quite sad in many respects. It is not a happy, feel good movie, and while it makes you think, there are no answers because there are so many holes in the premise(s.) There is nothing that the traveler can do to alter life events. And there isn't any sort of character development along the lines of Groundhog Day. How sad to have no control over when one travels or where or for how long.

There are dozens of unanswered questions. One can only suspend reality for so long in order to live in an alternate universe, in which time travel because of a genetic anomaly is a fact for at least one man and his offspring.

That said, it is beautifully filmed and acted. Rachel McAdams is perfect in her role as Clare Abshire (born 1971). Eric Bana makes it believable, albeit a puzzle, playing Henry DeTamble (born 1963).

One happy thing is that he finds love (or does he create it?) Additionally there are friends who know of his condition, as well as his father. So, in some sense he isn't entirely alone. But for what purpose?

There doesn't seem to be any purpose in his traveling. It would have made more sense to me if he had come from the future when such travel has been orchestrated as reality for a purpose -- even the purpose of being able to do it. Think Star Trek IV The Voyage Home. There's a reason for time travel in that one.

Sure, the reason could be love in this movie, but it seems that love is thwarted at every turn. So, to me at least, it is a negative view of love. Love is eternal? Love hurts? Love heals? Love is lost? The woman ages, but the man does not?

When Henry first meets Clare (or not)
This is an odd scene. Clare is 6, and Henry is a grown man. Considering the differences in their ages, which isn't a lot, I would have preferred to have seen this played (and written) when Clare is 6 and Henry is 14.

Be prepared -- nudity and miscarriages
There are flashes of nudity, both male and female, and male frontal nudity though nothing is seen, if that makes sense. Henry travels each time with nothing from the time frame he is traveling from. While this could have been some sort of comic relief, it becomes another aspect of pathos. He must find clothes, stealing them. Later he teaches his daughter to pick a lock, presumably for this purpose.

Clare suffers two miscarriages in the movie (something that would have done me in, when I was miscarrying.) In the book, she suffers 6. Very realistically filmed, both the blood, the surprise, the deep sorrow. The premise is that the fetus is also a traveler and leaves the womb. That being said, why would she, as much as she wants a child, bring a child with that anomaly into the world who would be subject to the same persecutions as her husband when she travels?

And the thought of a 9 year old traveling nude (which you do not see) to tell her 5 year old self what is going to occur, while not knowing how to end up in any particular locale, is not a pretty thought in today's world.

Have you seen the movie? Have you read the book?
What did you think? Will you go see it, if you haven't?

My take
I'm not unhappy I saw it once, but I'll likely never see it again. I give it a 4 for film execution and a 2 for overall because of the story. I liked the development of the friendship between Henry and Gomez. There is value in friendship, even if it seems impotent to stop the negatives of life.

To read Book Girl's review, go here.

Scroll down for spoiler:

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It seems given the head start they have as to what is going to happen, they could avert it. (I know, the premise is that they cannot.) Along with that, Henry traveling beyond the time of his death requires another suspension of reality, even the reality of the original premise.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com
don't steal my posts -- you know who you are!

Originally posted 2009-09-01 16:37:17.

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