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 I generally like this film though it left much to be desired in the realm of real science fiction. The Time Traveler's Wife is more of a romance film than it is is a true science fiction flick, but it was done well. Still, I have to throw this one into the "chick flick" trunk. To do otherwise, would be be to dish it a Joker in our Nerd World category. I am not feeling bloody enough to do that today. Plus, Brad Pitt produced this quixotic mush film. He of Inglorious Basterds and Fight Club fame, gets a little leeway with saccharine cinema.
The Time Traveler's Wife is an adaption of a novel published in 2003 by Audrey Niffenegger. It is a love story about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel quite unpredictably. Directed by Robert Schwentke, the film stars Eric Bana as Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian who ups and travels time for reasons never fully explained. His wife, Clare DeTamble (Rachel McAdams) is an artist, who must cope with her husbands random absences and dust-ups in time. Hey, at least he doesn't have a drinking problem.
As the film opens a kid (the young Henry DeTamble) is riding along in a car that is about to take a header from an oncoming truck. Suddenly, he disappears and leaves the scene completely (though this was the last trip for mom). He travels in time and somehow lives. He now is remanded to traveling back to certain points of time relating to this event. Oftentimes, he is naked because he can't travel with his clothes. This is convenient from the ladies perspective and I suppose a thinly veiled effort at some sort of rules of time travel governance.
Me, I like my time traveler to be in strapped into a kick ass machine that possibly can shoot missiles and dispense beer. I don't need to see the Time Traveler's rear end. I want to know more how time travel works. Were the hell is this film's "Flex Capacitor"?
The movie makers walked a fine line here. This movie could have easily teetered on the brink of silliness. Okay, it did do that. Nothing was explained about this ludicrous random time warp this dude found himself constantly beholden to. From my guy's perspective, I am not that much interested in the Time Traveler's Wife insofar as she is hot. I am not even sure this title is a truthful one because it is more about the Time Traveler and not really told from the wife's perspective at all. I wonder if the book is more true to what the wife must have experienced. In the movie at least, most scenes are from the Time Traveler's POV into other events. You would think that—given the title—nearly all the action would be from the POV of the Time Traveler's Wife. The more honest title for the film at least would simply have been The Time Traveler or The Accidental Time Traveler.
I am convinced that if you slap on "Wife" to any sort of occupation you now have a paint-by-numbers best seller format or at the very least a formula to derive a riveting movie title that automatically captures the female demographic. Let's take my theory a step further into madness and do so in a way to bring in both the broads and the dudes that crave action. In that respect, who wouldn't want to see the following films:
- The Avatar's Wife
- The Hurt Locker Wives
- Raiders of the Lost Ark and their Wives
- Star Wars Revenge of the Sith and their Wives
- Goodfellas and their Wives
- The Godfather's Wife (now that one actually sounds good).
- The Boondock Saints and their Wives
- The Wrestler's Wife
- The Inglorious Basterd's Wife
While we are on contrivances, I think if you include "Wives" or "Wife" in any title then you are surely indicating what we are about to witness is a chick flick. On that term, The Time Traveler's Wife scores well as far as chick flicks go. I think your "wife" will like this flick. It has good looking people, they are stylish and rich, yet very gentle and tender. The cinematography is pleasing and relaxing. Unfortunately, this is a guy's movie review site and we judge such efforts from the testosterone prism of what it is in it for us. Most guys will gravitate toward the time travel aspects of the film. Unfortunately, from a science fiction perspective - this movie really falls way short.
The scenes I looked forward too never really materialized. I thought that when our time traveler was going to find the obligatory scientist who would help unravel the mysteries of time travel, that this surely interesting guy would have all sorts of cool theories about time travel. Perchance, maybe we were going to meet Doc from Back To the Future. Instead, we got a very boring geneticist who simply noted that The Time Traveler had an epileptic seizure before he traveled. You just got the sense that time travel and erectile dysfunction were on equal footing with this healer. This doctor seemed more interested in getting back to work, maybe publishing papers and frolicking in bizarre world of academia.
One intriguing angle I thought could have made this film more interesting. What if our time traveler guy was more like a ghost? After all, he sort of was haunting time in a sense. In fact, he should have died from what the movie showed us at the beginning. I am not subtracting anything for not exploring that possibility, but that would be sort of a different plot twist. This may have taken it from a competent date movie to something higher.
Overall, a watchable film if it is the "wife's turn" to pick the movie. The most a real man can expect out of this film is that they better half is primed for a kiss. Let us call this flick a "Kiss Primer." Time to move on.
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