The Time Traveler's Wife - Book to Movie
Adaptation of the Complex Audrey Niffenegger Novel Feels Hollow
Oct 1, 2009
Warning: This article contains spoilers for both the movie and novel versions of The Time Traveler's Wife.
The Time Traveler's Wife, as a novel, is something of a tour de force. Written in alternating first person, the book follows Henry and Clare, star-crossed -- or, rather, time-crossed -- lovers whose romance takes twists and turns backward and forward through time as Henry randomly time travels up and down their relationship. For example, when Clare first meets Henry, she has known him since her childhood, but he's never seen her before.
Simplifying a Complex Storyline
The movie version presents the basic story in a fairly straightforward manner. This is probably fortunate, since the back-and-forth structure of the book would be difficult to construct comprehensibly on-screen. However, it takes some of the spark from the story, boiling it down to a single timeline and focusing on the romance elements to the exclusion of every other subplot introduced in the book. It also lacks the "puzzle pieces" feel of the book, where the reader must fit future, past and "present" events together to come up with the full outline of Henry's past.
As a book, The Time Traveler's Wife felt incomplete. Henry's work with his doctor implied that Henry's eventual death might be the result of erosion due to his time travel, but instead Henry dies of mundanely natural causes. This subplot is addressed even less fully in the movie, where the doctor's character is barely touched on.
Another element vital to the history of the lovers that comes off poorly in the film is Henry's visits to the very young Clare. Their first meeting, when Clare is eight and Henry is in his thirties, is amusing in the book but more than a little creepy in the movie. This is no fault of the actors or even the script -- it just has a very different feel to it when seen in living color.
Improving on the Novel
One area where the movie improves on the book, though, is in the ending. In the book, the reader gets the impression that Clare, after losing Henry, has little in her life other than their young daughter Alba, also a time traveler. From the bits and pieces presented in the last few chapters, Clare seems to live the rest of her life waiting for a time traveling visitation from her dead husband. The last scene of the novel is of Clare, in her eighties and apparently on her deathbed, making her final farewells to a much younger, temporally displaced Henry. This ending might have seemed more fitting had the author given readers at least some sense that Clare went on with her life, found a new love, or did anything other than pine for Henry to return. Instead, Clare's entire life seems to depend on the vagaries of her time traveling suitor and husband.
In the movie, Clare seems instead to receive some closure. The ending features her and Alba meeting up with Henry in the field where Clare originally met him, and as Henry disappears again there is a strong sense that Clare is ready to move on. This ending leaves a much better feeling behind than the ending of the novel did.
Competent Performances
The actors in Time Traveler -- Eric Bana as Henry and Rachel McAdams as Clare -- are competent enough. Bana is handsome and appealing, though there is some understandable confusion about what timeframe he's from when he appears, as he rarely looks much different. Longer hair and some gray at the temples are used during one memorable bait-and-switch scene, but other than that Henry generally just looks like a somewhat unshaven Eric Bana. McAdams's constant expression of intense adoration is tiring through the first third of the film, but she manages a slightly wider range later. Other characters are given little screen time, but Arliss Howard as Henry's father proves memorable, and Hailey McCann as Alba performs her role solidly.
Overall, The Time Traveler's Wife is a competent adaptation of a very long and complex novel, but the necessary simplification of the story removes many of the elements that make the novel as intriguing as it is.
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