The Time Traveler’s Wife snuck up on me. The film - based on Audrey Niffenegger’s novel – takes its time grabbing you, and as I’ve read the book already, I knew how the film would end. So does the audience. So, it was quite to my surprise that, as the film neared its climax, I had a pit in my stomach. I knew what was happening it was affecting me on an emotional level. I bought it all: hook, line and sinker.
Colour me a hopeless romantic.
To be fair, The Time Traveler’s Wife could pretty fairly be labeled a “chick flick,” but that’s not a term I’m sure I really believe in. We’ll ignore the fact that this – like most “chick flicks” – was written and directed by men, and the fact that Brad Pitt (yes, that Brad Pitt) was an executive producer. Just because a film is a drama about love – something that both sexes go through – doesn’t mean that it’s something that should only appeal to women. For God’s sake, Casablanca may be the most famous “chick flick” of all, but if Bogie can pull it off with style and his manhood intact, I see no reason why modern men can’t enjoy these films as well. But I digress.
The plot of Traveler is easy to sum up, but confusing (at first, anyway) to jive with. It revolves around Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana), a man who has a neurological disease that causes him to randomly travel through time. The woman he loves, Claire Abshire (Rachel McAdams), he first met when he traveled back in time to when she was six years old, and they’ve been in love ever since. The story follows their life together, going through the many pitfalls that would accompany such a condition.
The joy in the film (and in the book) comes from watching it all play out. You experience life out of order, as Henry does, but it allows a unique perspective on the major events of life. As would be expected, it’s a tearjerker, so be prepared.
Bana shows yet another side of himself (see his flair for the hilarious in Funny People), dropping the tough-guy attitude he usually has for a man vibrantly in love with a woman, and how the very nature of who he is is breaking them down. McAdams, one of the sexiest and most talented actresses we have today, brings the money as she always does, acutely exhibiting the joy and heartache that Claire experiences trying to deal with Henry’s condition. They’re the third wonder couple of the summer’s film season, and watching them together touches on some kind of magic.
The pacing is a little slow, as I already said, but by the end, I wanted to see more of their life together, which gets a bit rushed in order to get to the ending. Most of the science transferred over from the book gets lost, and instead the movie’s focus is the relationships, which hurt the film a little, but not over much.
The Time Traveler’s Wife is basically what one would expect from a so-called “chick flick,” but hell, that’s okay with me. So they turn up the schmaltz. It works, and that’s what the audience wants anyway (the scene – clichéd as it may be – where Claire and Henry run through a field towards each other gave me goose bumps). Put your prejudices aside and let it carry you away.
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