Review: The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger's 2004 Novel Brought to Silver Screen
Aug 27, 2009
The romantic drama, directed by Robert Schwentke, examines how time travel affects a married couple’s relationship. Author Audrey Niffenegger wrote the novel in 2004, reportedly based on her true life failed relationships, according to Quill and Quire.
Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, credited with writing scripts for The Last Mimzy and Ghost, signed on to adapt the novel for the silver screen.
The story behind The Time Traveler’s Wife is interesting and the film is cleverly pieced together, yet something was missing. Performances were touching but the film itself is aloof.
Eric Bana (Troy, The Incredible Hulk) delivers a tragic performance as time traveler Henry DeTamble who randomly floats through time, while Rachel McAdams (The Notebook) portrays Clare Abshire, a woman desperate to have a traditional marriage, but who in a way enjoys the uniqueness of her situation.
Ron Livingston (Band of Brothers) doesn’t play an integral or large part in the film, yet portrays the "irreverent" friend Gomez who realizes by the end how much Harry has grown on him.
How Henry DeTamble's Genetics Send Him To The Past Or Future
Henry has traveled through time most of his life due to a rare genetic mutation and he first travels as a young boy when his mother dies in a tragic car accident.
As a man, Henry works a librarian and leads a rather shallow life split between locating rare books and bracing for his next disappearing act.
When he first meets Clare he is in his mid-20's, and although Clare already knows him - because he had already visited her when she was 6-years-old - they begin their courtship. It was peculiar to see an older version of Henry visiting his wife and the mother of his child when she is barely out of kindergarten, yet not many couples get to see their significant others at every stage of life.
Against the desires of her parents, Clare marries Henry and the two start a tumultuous life together. They even conceive a child who has the same abilities.
Henry vanishes at any given moment and the more nervous or agitated he is the more likely it will happen. Each time his wife Clare gets used to having Henry around, he’ll disappear and end up running naked through some random city in the past.
How Time Traveling Differs In This Film
What makes the Time Traveler’s Wife interesting is that Henry DeTamble can’t control his trips through time. In other stories related to time travel, the characters typically control whether or not they want to visit the future or past by using super powers or devices.
In The Butterfly Effect, for example, Ashton Kutcher’s character Evan travels through time by reading his childhood journal. Or in the 2002 remake of The Time Machine, Guy Pearce’s Alexander uses his own invention to go in the future.
Other science fiction films initiate time travel through a strange portal or black hole, gateways that are voluntarily entered, but none have ever put a character in a postion where he or she is compelled to time travel. Of course, that doesn’t mean any of these characters won’t have to deal with the consequences of going through time.
In The Time Traveler's Wife, Henry has to deal with figuring out how and when he will die.
Overall, The Time Traveler's Wife is an entertaining film and the type of romantic movie that is a staple of date night.
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