The Time Traveller's Wife
Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams and Ron Livingstone
DVD release: 18 March 2010
Rated: M
A stitch in time
The Hulk does Dr. Who without the Tardis. What lifts The Time Traveller's Wife out of the standard chick-flick category is the conundrum posed in the opening, which leads to the plot’s wild dash of romantic fantasy.
Henry, the hero, is a librarian pleasantly surprised when
an 'unknown' pretty girl asks him for a dinner date. Clare (Rachel McAdams)
loves Henry (Eric Bana) from childhood, believing they are destined to
be together despite the minor problem that Henry keeps disappearing. 
He’s
a time traveller, caused by a rare genetic anomaly, so he's always jumping
back and forth through the years without control. Clare’s never
sure when he’ll appear or vanish like Alice’s Cheshire cat.
It’s surely tough when your boyfriend can’t remember what
day it is, let alone the year and keeps appearing in public places without
any clothes.
All very worrying; especially when Clare and Henry decide to marry. The
wedding becomes a total mess-up, to say nothing of the problems of Clare
wanting a baby who might also end up a time traveller. Then Henry has
a vision of his own death - by now you’ll need a Bex and a nice
lie down to sort all the comings and goings.
The film’s based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger, with a screenplay
by Bruce Joel Rubin who also penned Ghost a few years ago. It’s
helmed with a touch of desperation by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan),
who tries hard for some semblance of continuity as Eric appears to be
a different age every time we see him, as does Clare growing to womanhood;
something that’s more than a little confounding as we approach the
emotional tagline.
You have to say Bana’s come a long way since his Full Frontal
and Chopper days, entering the romantic field with a pleasant
enough portrayal of a man trapped in time.
It’s girl’s night out with Bana (Funny People) appearing
backside naked in a number of scenes or stripped to the waist taking a
leaf out of Inspector Montalbano’s book of beefcake. Some plot skulduggery
aimed at sex appeal has him losing his clothes at the drop of a suspender,
and even a good old ‘Chopper’ bare chested style punch up.
He also conveys a sense of dismayed wonderment at his extraordinary predicament.
Rachel McAdams (State of Play) doesn’t set romance on fire
in this outing, but it’s fair to say it’s not an easy role
making love to a repeatedly vanishing time traveller. In supporting parts
Ron Livingston (Standoff) playing Gomez makes his presence felt,
while the reliable Stephen Tobolowsky (Deadwood) puts in effort
as Dr. Kendrick.
One concern may be that the target audience will find it too confusing
for light entertainment. In my view, the confabulated storyline actually
makes it more interesting than standard plots of this genre - at least
it keeps you guessing. However it flummoxed me at times - I couldn’t
work out what day it was either - and without giving away the ending,
it doesn’t really make much sense.
The whole thing is filmed with smooth camerawork and a rich saturated
look of ‘technicolour’, with music suitably adding to the
uneasy but elegiac atmosphere. Like a couple of other movies, recently
The Time Traveller’s Wife has come up with a bright original
concept which sadly fails to reach a full realisation.
John Bale