The Time Traveler's Wife Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 08.17.2009

A movie that asks, "Does sleeping with a younger version of your husband constitute adultery?"

Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Written by: Jeremy Leven & Bruce Joel Rubin

Starring:
Eric Bana - Henry DeTamble
Rachel McAdams - Clare Abshire
Ron Livingston - Gomez
Jane McLean - Charisse
Stephen Tobolowsky - Dr. David Kendrick
Arliss Howard - Richard DeTamble
Brooklynn Proulx - Young Clare
Hailey McCann - Alba DeTamble
Michelle Nolden - Annette DeTamble
Maggie Castle - Alicia Abshire
Fiona Reid - Lucille Abshire
Philip Craig - Philip Abshire
Brian Bisson - Mark Abshire




Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, brief disturbing images, nudity and sexuality.

Often times, romantic films are rarely "just" romantic films. The story of boy meets girl is one that has been told so many times that Hollywood often feels that it works best within a gimmick. As such, we get romantic comedies, or romantic supernatural films like Ghost. Jerry Maguire can be considered a sort of romantic sports film, and Pearl Harbor is a romantic war drama. One of the great things about a love story is that love is such a complex emotion that it can allow for an infinite amount of variations. It is in this vein that The Time Traveler's Wife comes to us. Directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, it is what can be described as a romantic science-fiction drama, and it hit theaters this weekend.

The film stars Bana as Henry DeTamble, a research librarian living in Chicago. Henry has a certain peculiarity to his life…he travels through time during periods of stress, a condition that first manifested itself at the age of five when he slips out of the car his mother was driving just before a fatal car accident. Henry has a tendency to go to places that will be important to him more often but is unable to control where and when he travels to, and it is through this that he meets Claire Abshire (McAdams). When Henry first experiences meeting Claire, they are both in their twenties and she knows all about him, but he knows nothing of her. Throughout the course of the film their romance develops and Henry experiences meetings that Claire has already had, including their first from Claire's perspective when she is six and he is in his thirties. Eventually the condition is identified as a genetic disorder and Henry fears it will end up transferring to any children they have…something which becomes more and more a likelihood following several miscarriages. As time goes in, it becomes harder for Claire to spend extended time away from Henry, and Henry himself has to worry about his own impending death considering no one has ever seen Henry past his forties. The unasked question hangs over their head of whether their love can last and whether they can live happily knowing everything has already been determined.

The Time Traveler's Wife is based on the best-selling and award-winning novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger, and adapted to the screen by Jeremy Leven with a rewrite job by Bruce Joel Rubin. Leven has no small amount of experience in the romantic film/tearjerker genre, with the screenplays for Don Juan DeMarco, Alex & Emma, The Notebook and this year's My Sister's Keeper to his credit. Likewise, Rubin has experience in the genre with Ghost and the tearjerker Michael Keaton drama My Life. In adapting this story, the two writers kept the elements of this film that make it difficult to categorize. Is it a romance? Is it a science-fiction film? Is it a melodrama? Author Terence Green labeled the original story a "timeslip romance," and it would seem that is the most accurate way to label the film. There are some very intriguing sci-fi elements that could be expounded upon; a geneticist that helps Henry discusses his condition and how he seems to have brain activity like an epileptic fit just before he slips. However, the primary focus isn't on the time travel. Instead, it is on what the time travelling does to the relationship between the two characters. Despite the title of the film, the story focuses as much on Henry as it does on Claire, and many times it follows the time traveler's experiences as much if not more than the wife's. The situation is sort of the ultimate long-distance relationship at times, and how it wears on the both of them is touched on, more deeply with Claire than with Henry. The biggest difficulty with the story is the lack of conflict. Henry keeps his time traveling secret from most people, although anyone who plays a part in the story ends up knowing, including their friends Gomez and Charisse. Henry and Claire fight, particularly over having children as Henry doesn't want to bring someone else with his condition into the world, but that is resolved quickly enough. It's not surprising that this was put together by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, considering its similarities to Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Both movies talk about love in an ageless manner, and both movies focus more on relationships instead of conflict to drive the movie forward. Wife does not have the charm of Button inherent within the story, and it suffers by comparison at times because of that.

There are a lot of unasked moral questions in this movie—is it cheating if you sleep with a younger version of your spouse? Do any of the characters that interact with Henry have free will, or are they just doing what's predestined to happen? Henry talks at times about trying to change events that have happened and being unable to, so his time really changeable, or does the idea of paradox stop that? Most of these are brushed aside, but they remain there in the back of the minds of the audience. This movie doesn't completely ignore those questions but it doesn't handle it in a heavy-handed way; they are more brought up and then never answered, leaving the viewer to decide, and takes the rest of the time to look at the relationships. What helps the movie is that it doesn't just focus on Henry and Claire; there are some good moments involving Henry's parents and the couple's friends as well. Henry's father is an alcoholic who never seems to have recovered after his wife's death; the scenes in which he occurs are well-written and allow that character to progress. One of the most poignant scenes actually involves Henry going back in time and ending up on a subway train. He encounters his mother there, and begins to speak to her, telling her all the things he wants her to know about his life. She doesn't know who this guy is, but she's happy for him and seems to feel some kinship and joy at it. It's well-written and comes across beautifully. Unfortunately not all the scenes are as good, and ones in which there is a disparate age difference between Claire and Henry actually come off somewhat creepy. It may be hard to invoke the innocence in a scene where a naked thirty-someodd man asks a six year old for a blanket to cover up with from behind a bush, but it's a challenge the movie doesn't quite rise to nonetheless.

In casting the leads for this movie, the filmmakers found a pair of talented actors in Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Both are very good at their craft and they perform quite well most of the time here. Bana doesn't always have the screen presence he's displayed in films like Munich and as the villain Nero in this summer's Star Trek, but his performance is nuanced enough to capture Henry at multiple ages. He does better as the older Henry, handling the maturity better than the innocence, and there is an openness to him throughout, an honesty to his performance, that is a joy to watch. Similarly, McAdams seems occasionally lost when she's playing the younger Claire, and the CGI to make her look eighteen doesn't help much. However, as Claire becomes older and wiser the actress takes control and delivers some good work, and it's certainly a bonus to see that the two have a strong chemistry between them. Stephen Toblowsky, best known for his work on the TV show Heroes as company man Bob, does well in an underused role as the geneticist Dr. Kendrick. The rest of the supporting cast is fine, including Arliss Howard as Henry's father and Ron Livingston as the couple's friend Gomez; the one flaw in the acting comes from Hailey McCann who plays daughter Alba at nine and ten. It seems almost unfair to put criticism on such a young actress but considering the excellent recent work of Isabelle Fuhrman in Orphan as well as the decent acting of McCann's younger sister Tatum in as the younger Alba, Hailey comes off as stilted and a girl who's simply reciting lines.

At one point David Fincher, Steven Spielberg and Gus Van Sant were all interested in directing this film; it would have been quite interesting to see what they would have done with it. Instead the film ended up with Robert Schwentke at the helm. Schwentke is best known for his work on the Jodi Foster thriller Flightplan which was an average film, and he does the same kind of work here. While he gets some great work out of cinematographer Florian Balhaus (Marley & Me, Definitely, Maybe) and handles the story with passable skill, Schwentke is unable to push this film into the realm of being really good. He paces the story like a romance should be and keeps things moving along; unfortunately he seems too interested in keeping the movie on safe ground. He does allow some good elements of humor into the movie which is helps out some. He also clearly knows his target audience. If one doesn't feel they have enough naked Eric Bana in their life, this is clearly the movie for them. Schwentke simply doesn't broaden the appeal and as such this seems a film destined to be labeled as a "chick flick" by those who are fans of the term, and anyone who thinks that is unfair can point their fingers at the director. It's a movie that feels like it could have been more and Schwentke seems content to let it stand as a decent but not great entry into the romantic tearjerker genre.

One of the movie's best scenes is Henry and Claire's wedding. At the last minute Henry vanishes from the groomsmen's dressing room, only to have a version of him that's greying at the temples return moments later. That older Henry walks the aisle and says "I do" to the confusion of the guests who don't know where the grey came from, only to have him vanish and younger Henry return in time for the first dance...to a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." If that sort of mix of humor and sadness could have mixed so well throughout the movie, it could have been a great one instead of merely a decent one.

The 411: The Time Traveler's Wife is a difficult film to quantify. At times the acting is good, the writing is heartfelt, the humor is legitimately uplifting and the film is engrossing. At other times, it seems very much like a standard romantic drama with no ambition than to be anything else. The film focuses on the romance aspect and leaves the science fiction as little more than a framework in which to unfold the love story, which is good but leaves a lot of good questions only lightly touched on. Ultimately, this is a disappointing film that is good enough, but could have been much more.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]